PHOTOS: Itâs not every day that a major building in San Jose becomes consumed by a raging inferno, sending up dark clouds of smoke that can be seen for miles, forcing hundreds of people to flee for safety and captivating the nationâs attention.
So when a Home Depot store in South San Jose quickly burst aflame last weekend, many residents were reminded of one of the cityâs last calamitous structure fires: the 2002 Santana Row blaze.
While San Jose has experienced a multitude of other massive infernos in the past two decades â including a 2010 blaze that burned most of Merritt Trace Elementary School to the ground and a 2014 five-alarm fire that destroyed a 120,000-square-foot warehouse â Santana Row remains the worst in San Jose history, ingrained in the minds of many residents.
In some ways â from the building types to the size and breadth of destruction â the Santana Row and Home Depot fires are quite different. But stories told by residents feature sobering similarities.
