Demolition of a commercial building in Los Altos that was badly damaged in a three-alarm Christmas Day fire began Wednesday.
A contractor's crew started tearing down the roof and second story of the building in order to make it safe for investigators with the Santa Clara County Fire Department to get inside and determine what caused the fire.
"The roof has collapsed, so that collapse might cause more collapse," Santa Clara County Fire Department Capt. Matt Mokhtarian said. "We are going to dismantle this building from the top down. That will allow a safe environment with hopefully no overhead obstructions for the firefighters and the investigators to complete that investigation."
El Camino Real between San Antonio Road and Sherwood Avenue was closed as a result of the fire and will remain off limits to traffic until the demolition is complete.
The fire was reported at 4:48 a.m. Dec. 25 at the two-story, roughly 20,000 square foot building at 4600 El Camino Real.
No injuries were reported.
NBC Bay Area's Marianne Favro contributed to this report.
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