Firefighters protect Modesto businesses from storage container blaze

Firefighters on Sunday morning tackled a storage container fire and stopped the flames from reaching nearby businesses on South Seventh Street in Modesto.

The fire was reported shortly after 6:30 a.m. behind businesses in the 700 block of South Seventh Street, just east of Highway 99. Firefighters arrived on the property and took a defensive stance around the burning storage containers.

Modesto Fire Batallion Chief Randy Anderson said the firefighters prevented the flames from spreading to the nearby businesses. He said it took the firefighters about 30 minutes to get the fire under control.

The firefighters stayed there another 25 minutes to make sure the fire was completely out and no smoldering spots would remain and reignite the blaze. The two burning containers reportedly had wood pallets or crates inside.

Anderson said the burned containers were directly behind B2B Truck Sales, but the area appeared to be storage property shared by the nearby businesses.

Investigators had not determined the cause of the fire. Anderson said the fire appeared to have started just outside the containers, and investigators have not ruled out whether evidence of a warming fire in a nearby homeless encampment might have contributed to the blaze.

No injuries were reported. It was unclear on Sunday afternoon how much damage the fire caused. The Ceres Fire Department and the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District assisted in putting out the blaze.

This story was originally published October 8, 2017 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Firefighters protect Modesto businesses from storage container blaze."