Woman known to stay in old warehouse hasn’t been seen since massive blaze
On the night of the five-alarm fire at an abandoned Tully Road warehouse frequented by transients, there were reports that someone might still be inside.
Due to safety concerns, firefighters couldn’t enter the warehouse then and haven’t been able to since the July 7 blaze, said Modesto Fire Chief Alan Ernst.
One of those transients, 49-year-old Karena Marie Hickman, is still unaccounted for. Her longtime partner, Daniel Pettinger, believes she died in the fire and fears that what’s left of her remains are being desecrated.
“There are people at the place scrapping the metal, graffitiing, traipsing around,” Pettinger said. “I look at it as a burial site ... I don’t want her disturbed.”
What’s more, it could take weeks or months before authorities can safely enter the building to search for Hickman.
“I need some kind of closure,” Pettinger said.
Ernst said firefighters tried to make entry into the 100,000-square-foot warehouse — once used for ice storage — the night the fire broke out.
“We opened one door, but as soon as it was opened, the fire escalated quickly.” he said. “The determination was to pull all the firefighters back. There was not a comprehensive search of the facility.”
The fire broke out about 8:55 p.m. Investigators narrowed the origin of the fire to the warehouse’s loading docks, but a cause could not be determined.
The fire burned for 72 hours. The second and third floors collapsed, and what is believed to be asbestos was found in much of the burned area.
Ernst said crews cannot enter the warehouse until the asbestos is mitigated and walls vulnerable to collapse are removed or otherwise stabilized.
When that will be done, Ernst says, depends on “how quickly the property owner can get a contract. Just to get the contract could take a week to a few weeks.”
There was some hope initially that Hickman had made it out of the warehouse.
Several people reported seeing her at Food Maxx the day after the fire, but investigators could not substantiate those claims.
There have been no reported sightings of her since, and she has not checked in with the payee who handles her disability checks.
Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Bear said Hickman was entered into the missing person database, so if she is contacted by law enforcement anywhere, they will be alerted that she is a missing person.
Detectives will continue to look for her in hospitals and mental health facilities, as well.
Bear said the department’s Crime Reduction Team, which works closely with the homeless population and is familiar with Hickman, is looking for her and talking with other homeless people about her.
Hickman grew up in Modesto and graduated from Beyer High School in the late 1980s, Pettinger said. They met in 1999 and have a 12-year-old son who lives in Southern California with other family.
Pettinger said Hickman became homeless about seven years ago.
He said they’ve been together off and on over the years. He’d been fixing up a home in Nevada and planned to have Hickman move there with him.
“I’ll probably just sell the place,” Pettinger said while standing outside the burnt warehouse on Wednesday. Until her remains are found, he said, “this is my home now.”
He went inside the warehouse a few days ago to look for signs of her and was startled to see and hear other people. He winced as he talked about the thought of them walking through what could be Hickman’s remains.
He put up missing person fliers inside and around the warehouse and left behind flowers, he said, in hopes people will extend the respect she deserves.
“I know she’s in there,” he said. “I just don’t know where. It’s haunting.”
