Old railroad ice-making plant next to switchyard in Riverbank burns again

Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District crews spent about an hour battling a small blaze at a one-time ice-making plant in Riverbank early Monday.

“It wasn’t much of a fire, just hard to access,” said Battalion Chief Eric DeHart, said of the fire in the 5800 block of Terminal Avenue.

Because the report of the blaze at the vacant site went out as a commercial structure fire, it drew a large response: five engines and two trucks. But two to three crews were released from the scene almost immediately, DeHart said.

The fire was reported about 12:40 a.m. The largely concrete building burned back in the mid-’90s and a couple of times since, DeHart said, but there have been no incidents there lately.

The building is attractive to transients seeking shelter. Earlier fires caused the roof to collapse, which created lean-tos, of sorts, which offer protection from the outside elements, DeHart said. Without knowing for sure, he said, this blaze likely was a warming fire that got out of control.

No one was found at the scene and there are no known injuries.

Crews did what they could from the ground, then put ladders up and used hoses from above. They battled the fire from outside because entering the collapsed interior would have put firefighters at risk.

The building once served as an ice-making facility for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The railroad has a switchyard adjacent to the old ice plant.

This story was originally published January 16, 2017 at 9:04 AM with the headline "Old railroad ice-making plant next to switchyard in Riverbank burns again."