The California High-Speed Rail Authority confirmed this week that the historic Fresno Chinatown building destroyed in a Sunday blaze was already slated for demolition — a decision that has reignited concerns about the neighborhood’s shrinking collection of historic structures.
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The vacant 130-year-old brick building, located at the southeast corner of Tulare Street and China Alley, caught fire early Sunday. The agency declined to answer questions Tuesday about the building’s recent use or the steps it had taken to secure the site, which had seen multiple break-ins and repeated fires. But by Wednesday, the authority acknowledged that crews had recently been at the site "clearing out the building and beginning demolition operations."
“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 to The Fresno Bee.
The burned structure had experienced three previous fires this year alone, according to Fresno Fire Department spokesperson Josh Sellers. The building was already structurally compromised before this latest incident. People were inside at the time of Sunday’s fire, though investigators have not determined a cause. With little more than debris remaining, Sellers said determining the exact ignition source “will be difficult.”
Jan Minami, executive director of the Chinatown Fresno Foundation, said the building’s partially completed work and deteriorated condition likely contributed to its vulnerability.
“I think most buildings probably are not susceptible like that one was,” she said, noting that the site’s unfinished condition “probably made it easier to access” and for a fire to break out.
Fresno County records show the state purchased the structure in March 2015 as part of its right-of-way acquisition for the high-speed rail project. In 2022, the agency even commissioned a mural featuring California imagery and the train on the building's China Alley-facing wall, a move that gave local advocates hope the structure would be integrated into the neighborhood’s visual history.
Minami said the foundation had been aware for more than a year that the agency intended to tear the building down.
“We did try to work with them to find an alternative solution to demolishing it, but we weren’t able to succeed,” she said.
Nearby business owner Morgan Doizaki, who operates Central Fish Co., said he had seen crews clearing out the property in recent months.
“The demolition should have been finished already,” he said.
Doizaki was in Las Vegas when he got the news of the fire and rushed back to Fresno.
“The lights went out at Central Fish and I had customers in here,” he said. “It definitely ruined my trip.”
The fire is the latest in a troubling pattern for Fresno’s Chinatown, where multiple historic buildings have burned in recent years. Advocates say the neighborhood—home to generations of Chinese, Japanese, Armenian, Basque, African American, and Mexican residents—has already lost major pieces of its cultural fabric.
Elizabeth Laval, president of the Fresno City and County Historical Society, said each loss is significant.
“Every time a local historic building burns down, we start losing a little piece of ourselves,” she said.
She emphasized that Chinatown’s heritage spans many communities and represents vital chapters of 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.
While acknowledging the challenges that have plagued Chinatown for decades, Laval said its legacy remains strong.
“All is not lost in Chinatown,” she said, noting that the historical society has preserved hundreds of artifacts and documents from the neighborhood.
“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.”
The high-speed rail authority has not yet said how it plans to use the cleared property. The broader project includes a future station across the tracks in downtown Fresno and construction of new underpasses connecting downtown and Chinatown — long-sought improvements that could reshape the area.
For now, the community is left grappling not only with another fire but with the sense that a little more of Fresno’s historic Chinatown has disappeared.
Originally reported by Erik Galicia in Fresnobee.
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