CA High-Speed Rail planned to demolish Chinatown building that burned in Fresno
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- California High‑Speed Rail began demolition work on 130‑year‑old Chinatown building.
- Fire destroyed the historic structure Sunday; investigators have not determined cause.
- Community members say unfinished demolition left building accessible to trespassers.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority confirmed it planned to demolish the vacant historic building that burned down Sunday in Fresno’s Chinatown neighborhood.
The rail authority on Tuesday declined to answer specific questions about what the building at the southeast corner of Tulare Street and China Alley was being used for, or what steps it had taken to secure the roughly 130-year-old structure against trespassers.
But in a Wednesday statement to The Bee, the agency said crews were recently on-site clearing out the building and beginning demolition operations. The rail authority is planning to build a station nearby, across the tracks in downtown Fresno, and is also working on underpasses connecting downtown and Chinatown.
“The building was scheduled for demolition to ensure the safety of community members in the area as a result of repeated unauthorized trespass,” the agency said in a statement.
In recent years, Chinatown has been the site of several destructive fires that underscore the dangers of vacant and unsecured buildings in Fresno. The building that burned Sunday had three other fires this year and had already sustained structural damage, said Fresno Fire Department spokesperson Josh Sellers.
But this time, it was completely destroyed. People were inside the building when the fire started, but Sellers said the fire department has yet to determine a cause for the blaze. There is little more than rubble left on the property, he said, so it will be difficult to determine a cause.
Jan Minami, executive director of the Chinatown Fresno Foundation, said the unfinished work on the building “probably made it easier to access” and a fire to ensue.
“I think most buildings probably are not susceptible like that one was,” she said.
Chinatown foundation wanted ‘alternative solution’ for building set for demo
Fresno County records show the rail authority bought the building in March 2015. The state agency in 2022 commissioned an artist to paint a mural depicting California and the train on the building’s wall facing China Alley.
Minami said she found out more than a year ago that the agency wanted to demolish it.
“We did try to work with them to find an alternative solution to demolishing it, but we weren’t able to succeed ,” Minami said.
Morgan Doizaki, owner of the Central Fish Co., which is located near the property that burned, said he noticed crews at the building in recent months clearing the space .
“The demolition should have been finished already,” he said.
Doizaki said he was in Las Vegas on Sunday morning when he found out about the fire . He rushed over to Chinatown in the afternoon after landing back in Fresno, he said.
“The lights went out at Central Fish and I had customers in here,” he said. “It definitely ruined my trip.”
It’s not yet clear what the rail authority will do with the property.
Despite multiple fires, ‘all is not lost’ in Chinatown
Elizabeth Laval, president of the Fresno City and County Historical Society, said every time a local historic building burns down, “we start losing a little piece of ourselves.”
She said Chinatown, despite its name, has been home to multiple ethnic groups throughout Fresno’s history.
“We need to get moving to protect our properties so more buildings like that don’t get demolished or burn down,” she said.
Laval said it’s been about 60 years since the time downtown and Chinatown were “super vibrant.” But “all is not lost in Chinatown,” she added.
“The historical society, even as far back as the 1960s, was rescuing enormous amounts of artifacts from Chinatown, and some of the buildings they were in have been burned down,” Laval said.
