East Bay Booksellers, in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., was destroyed by a fire on July 30. The Oakland Fire Department arrived at the bookstore’s 5433 College Avenue location just before 5:30 a.m., and Bay Area media described the building and its contents as a total loss. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

No one was in the bookstore at the time of the blaze, which ravaged upstairs businesses and art in storage. Although no other buildings were burned, five tenants from an apartment building next door were displaced, one with minor injuries.

East Bay Booksellers owner Brad Johnson told PW he was working out his next steps. "First and foremost, we want to make sure our staff of booksellers are well-positioned and cared for, as the road to recovery looks to be long," he said. He and friends of East Bay Booksellers quickly set up a GoFundMe, and hundreds of supportive responses from booksellers, publishers, and Bay Area customers poured in on the store's Instagram account.

"The shock is turning into reality very quickly, and the reality is daunting," Johnson added. "But I’ve no doubt that our community of curiosity, who have challenged us as much as we’ve hopefully challenged them, will rise to the occasion."

East Bay Booksellers started in 1989 as Diesel, a Bookstore’s Oakland location. In 2016, owners Alison Reid and John Evans sold the business to Johnson, a longtime bookseller there, and Johnson reopened under the new name. The fire occurred on the same day that Reid and Evans announced the sale of Diesel’s Brentwood, Calif., location, which they founded in 2008. The Brentwood store is now owned by Richard and Heather Turner. Reid and Evans still own and operate Diesel in the San Diego metro area's Del Mar Highlands, a store that also has been for sale since 2022.

Hannah Walcher, executive director of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, informed the American Booksellers Association and contacted the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) on behalf of Johnson and East Bay's staff. “CALIBA members and his community of booksellers and publishers are thinking about him and looking at ways to help,” Walcher said. “When he’s ready, we’ll do what we can and step in where he needs us.”