Modesto-area fire crews have busy Sunday

Two detached buildings and a couple of vehicles were destroyed by fire early Sunday, but no one was injured.

The Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District sent five engines, a ladder truck, and 25 firefighters and fire officers to an alley on Sierra Street near Sixth Street at 3:16 a.m. They saved nearby homes but nothing could be done for the outbuildings, which appeared to contain home-repair materials. The damaged vehicles had been parked between the structures and houses. The fire’s cause is under investigation.

A couple of hours earlier, Stanislaus Consolidated put out a brush fire near Empire, north of the Tuolumne River and east of its Santa Fe Avenue crossing. A firefighter twisted an ankle and was treated at a hospital.

At 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the same agency returned for a similar blaze to the west of the bridge at the river. Although near the site of the earlier fire, the two did not appear related, Battalion Chief Paul Spani said.

“Maybe we were overdue” for an action-filled shift, Spani said. “We haven’t had one of those kinds of nights for a while, but everyone knows it happens.”

This story was originally published June 28, 2015 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Modesto-area fire crews have busy Sunday."