After a series of commercial fires torched thrift shops, a furniture store, and a long-abandoned historic building, Merced leaders are drafting an ordinance to reduce fire risks associated with vacant properties.
In the past two years, at least six fires have hit commercial buildings across the city. Some were accidental. Others remain under investigation. Together, they’ve caused more than $6.8 million in property losses.
Fires are sparking in vacant or underused buildings, often with signs of trespassing, open access points, and suspicious origins.
City leaders hope an ordinance that’s in the works will make vacant properties less vulnerable.
“We have to be a little more assertive to say, ‘Our vacant buildings can potentially create undue risk for our citizens,’” said Merced Police Chief Steven Stanfield.
The city attorney is finalizing a vacant building ordinance that Stanfield said would require business owners to maintain their buildings to prevent the public from being at risk.
“They’re just old, the wiring’s bad, there are no sprinklers, they’re vacant, and they’re sitting there not being used, and that’s not good,” Stanfield said.
A trend observed by newly appointed Merced fire chief, Casey Wilson, was that vacant buildings were considered targets for fires, since they sometimes served as shelter for unhoused people in the winter.
“Probably the most common cause of some of the fires when they’re vacant or unsecured buildings, then they become a target for transient activity,” said Wilson. “Oftentimes, they’re not malicious. They’re just trying to stay warm, or maybe they’re cooking inside where they shouldn’t be.”
Currently, the city’s code enforcement department addresses concerns about vacant buildings, including broken windows and overgrown vegetation.
In the coming months, the Merced Fire Department plans to increase weed abatement efforts to combat vegetation fires.
“We’ll go out, and we’ll issue notices, and we’ll be aggressive about cleaning those up,” Wilson said. “Because that is something that is rising for us, and it is impacting our resources, how much we’re tied up on those fires.”
As the grass dries, the fire department will notify properties to remove their overgrown vegetation.
“Oftentimes, vegetation fires spread into building fires,” Wilson said. “So I think we’re gonna see a reduction in building fires as well.”
Vacant buildings, repeat blazes
A review of fires that occurred in a two-year period showed how damage escalated in vacant buildings.
A fire gutted the St. Vincent De Paul thrift store at 131 W Main Street on January 26, 2023, causing a total property loss of $1.7 million.
Investigators found multiple areas of fire ignition and noted that numerous transient individuals were occupying the building before the fire, according to the report.
Officials with the St. Vincent De Paul Charity said the thrift store was no longer affiliated with the organization at the time of the fire.
On June 9, 2025, another fire broke out at a Thrift Center, located at 1346 W. Main Street.
As part of the investigation, MPD detectives collected two DVRs with security footage from the fire.
During an interview with the FOCUS, Stanfield said there was “no video evidence to support anybody coming or going out of that building.”
A third fire on September 23, 2024, struck Minerva’s Furniture at 264 W 16th Street. Crews discovered a man trapped on the second floor.
Limited access points and the absence of a fire suppression system made the rescue difficult, Wilson said.
The man was rescued and treated on scene. The report indicates he was living in the building for weeks. The fire’s origin point was near a makeshift sleeping area.
Other causes for fires
The cause of other high-profile fires remains unknown or under investigation.
On June 26, 2025, the fire department responded to a fire at a business preparing to open at 1111 Loughborough Drive.
Officers believe the fire unintentionally started at the front of the building, where a man had allegedly used acetone to remove flooring in preparation for polishing the next day, according to the investigation report.
When the officer returned to the building, he found a garbage can containing approximately 15 cans of acetone.
The witness left the building shortly after, so the officer was unable to determine the exact cause of the events.
A historic building at 670 W 22nd Street burned on December 2, 2024. The building used to house Merced County’s first high school and later served as the main library, which moved in the 1970s and was abandoned for decades.
“Smoke began showing from multiple boarded-up windows on both floors,” the report states. “A boarded-up window failed on the top floor. Interior firefighting conditions were poor.”
No injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
This fire, Stanfield said, was investigated by the Sheriff’s office since the property is considered part of the county.
Investigation findings
Through the investigation, Stanfield said, police discovered that people were living in some of the buildings without permission.
“I think there were a lot of conversations that (said) the homeless must be setting all these places on fire,” he said. “I think we just have to be cautious because I wouldn’t want to just assume. I want facts. I want evidence to support claims.”
The cause of the fire at the thrift store was undetermined at the end of the investigation, said Wilson.
“I’m pretty confident that it was not associated with any homeless activity,” he said. “The building was fully secured. That fire was not an arson fire.”
About a month later, the store caught fire again, and this time Wilson said the investigation yielded different results.
“That fire was actually started by a contractor that was doing work there,” he said. “He was welding and accidentally caught debris on fire. It was not an intentional fire.”
Rising attention, not rising numbers
From Facebook livestreams to photos shared within minutes, fire scenes in Merced often spread quickly online.
While fire-related posts continue to increase, the actual number of structure fires has remained relatively stable, according to the data.
“When I looked at structure fires, it was interesting to find that over 10 years, they’ve kind of fluctuated,” Wilson said. “We have some folks that stream a lot of our incidents via Facebook or different social media sites. The data shows that we’re really not seeing more fires.”
In the past decade, the rate of structure fires in Merced has remained steady, though vegetation fires have increased.
The city received 141 structure fire calls in 2017, the highest amount in the past decade, according to city data. On average, the city received approximately 110 structure fire calls in the past decade.
In the eight months that have been reported in 2025, there have been 80 calls for structure fires, according to Wilson.
Vegetation fire calls increased by 212% from 2019 to 2020. The following year, in 2021, the city recorded the highest number of vegetation fires in the past decade, at 991 incidents. This year, Wilson expects to receive 1,000 calls.
In 2024, the Merced City Police Department responded to 52 arson calls, according to Stanfield. As of September 2025, the city had 61. Most of these reports were not buildings. They were dumpsters.
The number of arson calls has not been significant, Police Chief Steve Stanfield explained.
“I’ve got to be honest, in my world, if the number of differences is nine from one year to year, it’s almost a non-number,” he said.
