Two dead, three injured after fire rages through home in south Modesto neighborhood
Two people were killed and three were injured in a two-alarm house fire in southwest Modesto on Wednesday morning, according to a fire official.
Crews from the Modesto and Ceres fire departments were dispatched to a home in the 1900 block of El Sereno Street just south of Hatch Road. The report of a working structure fire came in about 7 a.m. and quickly was upgraded to two alarms.
One person already was out of the home when the first firefighters got on scene, Modesto Fire Department Division Chief Tim Tietjen said. Crews were initially told there were three people possibly still trapped inside, he said.
As it turned out, there had been five people in the home. The person who self-evacuated was taken to a hospital by ambulance, and two others were airlifted. The final two were pronounced dead at the scene, Tietjen said.
Fire officials believe the five are a family, including adults and children. Whether those who died were children was not immediately released, and the conditions of those who survived were not immediately available.
The two-alarm blaze drew a total of seven engines, two trucks and five chief officers, for 36 personnel overall, Tietjen said.
The first on scene encountered heavy fire at the front of the home but made their way inside to locate those trapped.
The fire was relatively under control within about an hour, Tietjen said, and neighboring homes had been protected.
There was no immediate word on possible origin and cause. Fire and police investigators are working the case, which is standard protocol in a fatal fire, Tietjen said.
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 8:23 AM.
