Residents evacuated for fire north of Modesto grateful to find homes OK

Residents of Hogue Road and McHenry Avenue who were evacuated from their homes because of the fire on both sides of the Stanislaus-San Joaquin county line on Thursday were a bit weary but no worse Friday morning. They said they were grateful for the fire crews that worked for hours to protect their homes.

Those efforts continued throughout Friday as crews stayed on top of wind-driven flare-ups and investigators talked with witnesses and property owners to determine the cause of the fire. There was not a clear picture Friday afternoon of the fire’s acreage. Thursday, officials said about 30 to 40 acres burned, but Friday, Escalon Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Terry Pinheiro said about 30 acres burned on the San Joaquin County side alone.

Hogue Road resident Moya Semone said Friday morning that she was not home when evacuations were ordered not long after the fire started at 3 p.m. She heard about the evacuation about 3:30 and was back home again no later than 8 p.m., she estimated. “The fire people were really good, responded very well,” she said Friday in the 7 a.m. hour. “I was worried when I first heard, but my husband spoke with a firefighter and was told the evacuation was precautionary and the fire was still a good way off.”

Sandra Hill, who lives with her husband, Christopher, and three children in a home on McHenry north of Hogue, said they returned home about 10 p.m. While she and the kids were at a friend’s home, Christopher Hill waited by a sheriff’s patrol car at Stewart Road and McHenry for word that he could get home.

The family initially was worried about the home, but Christopher Hill said he felt better as the evening went on and he heard the house was protected. When the Hills got home, “I walked in and the smell, it was just a nauseating smell, really bad,” Sandra Hill said. “I’ve had a headache.” She hoped that cleaning and having windows open Friday would clear out the odor.

She said their children – ages 8, 11 and 13 – held up well Thursday evening. “They were troopers. I told them, ‘You were so brave.’” And how was she? “I was exhausted.” She was to go to work Thursday night in the transfer center at Memorial Medical Center but took night off.

“We’re very thankful for the firefighters,” she said Friday morning. “It’s just amazing what they do.”

Salida Fire Protection District Chief Dale Skiles was the incident commander when he arrived on scene at the long-closed Lotus Garden on McHenry Avenue on Thursday, and he was back there Friday morning.

Reviewing the firefighting effort, he said five structures were lost – all at the Lotus Garden property on the west side of McHenry about midway between Hogue and River roads. One of the structures was inhabited and the other four were outbuildings, he said. In addition, fire crews defended eight other structures in the fire area, all on the east side of McHenry. Only one, a home, was damaged, Skiles said. “There was minor damage to an exterior wall, but it was quickly extinguished.”

The fire “started on the San Joaquin County side and jumped the river,” he said Friday morning. “We were facing 18- to 20-mile-an-hour sustained winds. After jumping the river, the fire ran through this area known as the Lotus Garden. Upon our arrival, the fire was jumping McHenry Avenue, also. Priority No. 1 was people’s lives, and then the second priority was protecting structures.”

Structures at the Lotus Garden were “well involved” when crews arrived, he said.

Skiles said no firefighters were injured in battling the fire, and while firefighters heard a report that a civilian had suffered burns and required treatment, they could locate no such person at Lotus Garden. The person may have sought treatment on his or her own, Skiles said, or the initial report may have been inaccurate.

“We had every agency in Stanislaus County involved in some way,” he said of Thursday’s efforts, and the fire was fully contained by about 8 p.m.

Friday morning, crews rotated and additional crews were brought in for follow-up work. At work Friday in the 8 a.m. hour were the Salida and Stanislaus Consolidated fire protection districts, he said.

The objective Friday was to “control the line,” work within the fire area to fully extinguish any smoldering areas and “continue overhaul of burned structures,” he said.

Additional efforts were underway to repair and replace as necessary power lines and poles along McHenry in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties up into Escalon, he said. Charter also had crews out working on fiber-optic lines, Skiles said.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department and Escalon Fire Protection District are taking the lead on the investigation, Skiles said.

Friday about 4 p.m., Pinheiro said the fire began in the 24000 block of East River Road on property adjacent to the Escalon wastewater treatment plant. “It appears it was accidental in origin,” he said. “There’s nothing to indicate it was intentionally set.”

The Sheriff’s Department still was interviewing witnesses and property owners Friday afternoon, he said.

Wind drove the fire east through about 30 acres of Army Corps of Engineers property, Pinheiro said, then over the Stanislaus River into Stanislaus County and over and under McHenry Avenue.

He said winds continued to challenge the mop-up Friday. About 2 p.m., crews had to put down a quarter- to half-acre spot fire.

This story was originally published June 19, 2015 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Residents evacuated for fire north of Modesto grateful to find homes OK."