Modesto-area fire crews battle two massive blazes in one night
Two massive fires lit up the night sky in Modesto late Sunday.
The unrelated five- and four-alarm blazes — one at an abandoned warehouse, the other nearby and involving two homes on West Roseburg and Enslen avenues — injured no one, though an Enslen resident was evaluated by medical responders.
The first fire, at the warehouse of 100,000 to 125,000 square feet at the corner of Tully Road and Ninth Street, was reported about 8:55 p.m. and quickly went to five alarms. Companies from several departments — Modesto, Stanislaus Consolidated, Ceres, Ripon and Turlock — attacked the blaze.
Modesto Battalion Chief Darin Jesberg, at the warehouse as crews did overhaul work Monday morning, said the first firefighters on scene Sunday initially saw moderate smoke rising from the center of the building. Within a minute, though, there were flames through the roof.
Using ladder trucks, crews did what Jesberg called a water tower operation. Four large-diameter aerial streams were focused on the fire to keep it from spreading.
Jesberg said he was told the warehouse once was used for ice storage, and thick cork lined its walls.
“The cork was problematic” for firefighters, he said. “Once it got going, it created a significant fire load.”
Mop-up on the building, which still was smoking Monday morning, would continue throughout the day, he said.
The building was a total loss, Jesberg said, because the blaze swept through its entirety. Fire investigators were working to determine the origin and cause.
Jesberg said the first firefighters on scene encountered a large number of transients leaving the building. The people said others were inside, but a search found no one, the battalion chief said.
The Modesto Irrigation District de-energized power lines at and near the warehouse around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Only a small section of the surrounding area at Ninth Street and Tully Road was affected by the outage, spokeswoman Melissa Williams said, and power was fully restored at about 9 a.m. Monday.
Modesto Junior College’s east campus, near the fire scene, closed for the day Monday over air quality concerns.
In a fenced area outside the warehouse sit several vehicles being worked on by the Gateway Automotive repair shop. A few vehicles also belong to the business, said an employee who was assessing damage. All the vehicles suffered smoke damage, he said, and some suffered heat damage. Also, at least one was struck by debris that fell from the warehouse when hit by a hose stream Monday.
About an hour and 15 minutes into the warehouse blaze battle, a call went out of a reported tree fire on the 1100 block of Enslen Avenue, which by street is about a mile and half northeast. The call quickly was upgraded to a working structure fire as other people reported a home was burning.
Rick Dalton, at 1120 Enslen, said he and his wife, Judi, were watching TV when she smelled smoke. He went to check and found two tall evergreens at the rear of a neighbor’s property burning like torches, sending flames high into the air. While his wife called 911, he attempted to knock down the flames with a garden hose, but they were well beyond his control.
Dalton said the fire appears to have started in the detached garage of a neighboring home at 516 W. Roseburg Ave., right around the corner from Enslen. It spread to the trees, then to the office at the northeast rear of his home.
Response to his fire wasn’t quick, Dalton said, likely because resources were stretched by the warehouse fire. In the meantime, he kept his hose on it, “but stuff started exploding and my wife didn’t know I was in the back yard, she thought I was in the side yard, and so she thought I got my lunch” — a euphemism meaning she thought he got blown up. She was so rattled that she asked police to go find him, and they did. Meantime, medical crews evaluated Judi, he said, because she was so shaken.
The fire quickly grew to four alarms, and Modesto Fire was assisted by the Stanislaus Consolidated, Ceres, Salida, Keyes, Woodland Avenue, Burbank Paradise, Denair and Manteca fire departments. And because so many resources still were on the warehouse fire, Modesto called in three companies — two engines and a truck — of off-duty personnel, Battalion Chief Ryan Winton said Monday.
The fire destroyed the detached garage of the Roseburg residence, which held two cars. A nearby carport containing what appeared to be a camper trailer also was lost. And the fire damaged the exterior top of the house and broke some windows, but the interior apparently wasn’t damaged, Winton said.
The Daltons’ home on Enslen suffered greater damage. The office contents were destroyed and there was a lot of smoke damage to both floors of the home, Winton said.
The fire caused an estimated $500,000 in total damage, and the origin and cause remain under investigation, the battalion chief said.
This story was originally published July 8, 2019 at 4:56 AM with the headline "Modesto-area fire crews battle two massive blazes in one night."
