Firefighters twice fight blaze at Modesto wrecking yard

Firefighters returned to a Modesto auto wrecking yard Tuesday night when a blaze brought under control earlier in the evening re-erupted.

The initial fire was reported just after 6:30 p.m. at Modesto Auto Wreckers, at Crows Landing Road and Seventh Street. The fire was believed to be out within 35 minutes.

Less than an hour after crews left the scene, flames rose again. A Facebook post by the Modesto Fire Department said the fire was “a new one, not a rekindle.” But Battalion Chief Hugo Patino said Wednesday morning that the fire occurred in the same spot and was the same one.

“The difficulty is cars are stacked four or five high, so it’s unsafe to separate them,” he said. “There are so many back there, it would take hours for employees to move cars around to get them all on the ground. And, unfortunately, I believe their forklift was broken.”

Modesto and Ceres firefighters attacked the initial blaze from two locations because of the difficult accessibility, and the fire likely reignited where there still was smoldering material, Patino said.

“Last night, by the time they left around 11:30 or 12, they had put a lot of foam back there into all the nooks and crannies,” he said. Still, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to go back there today (Wednesday).”

The initial fire sent a huge plume of black smoke into the early evening air and led to traffic congestion on nearby Highway 99 and surrounding roads.

Crews had to tap into a fire hydrant on Blankenburg Avenue, nearly a quarter-mile away from the fire.

About 33 firefighters from Modesto and Ceres worked the early fire, Patino said, and slightly fewer responded when it reignited. Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District also had a battalion chief on the scene for the second fire.

There were no injuries, and the cause of the fire is not yet known. “Some 20 cars were going last night, so there’s no real good way to pinpoint a starting location,” Patino said. “Some people (were) seen around the property around the time of the fire, but that’s not unusual. Nobody was detained and there were no witnesses who said they saw somebody light a match.”

Loss was estimated at $5,000, according to Modesto Fire.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 8:08 AM with the headline "Firefighters twice fight blaze at Modesto wrecking yard."