Oakdale home badly damaged by fire

A single-story home on Lambuth Avenue in Oakdale was badly damaged by fire early Friday.

The call went out a couple of minutes before 1 a.m. The first Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District crew arrived in the 100 block to find flames coming out three sides of the house, said Battalion Chief Rick Bussell.

“Dispatch had advised us that an elderly female lived at the residence and was unaccounted for,” he said. A thorough search of the interior found no one, Bussell said, and firefighters found no one around who lived in the home.

Modesto Fire Department Battalion Chief Hugo Patino said he’d heard the resident of the house might have died recently.

Bussell said there was “no family or anyone else around there to confirm” that someone was or was not living in the house, but it was furnished and still had power to it.

“One thing that hampered us is there was a power line down in the backyard we had to avoid,” he said. The downed line was the result, not cause, of the fire. “The fire had burned through the roof where the weatherhead (the weatherproof entry point where overhead power or telephone wires enter a building) is, which caused the line to drop.”

Crews were able to knock down the fire in about 15 minutes, Bussell said, and spent more time ensuring it was out. There was fire damage throughout the house, he said.

“An investigator came out but was not able to determine an exact cause,” he said, “but did narrow it down to starting in the front bedroom.”

Sixteen personnel responded to the fire, Bussell said. Stanislaus Consolidated had four engines, one truck and a battalion chief on scene, and a battalion chief from Modesto assisted.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 8:32 AM with the headline "Oakdale home badly damaged by fire."