Commercial structure fire on Yosemite Boulevard in Modesto goes to three alarms
A “stubborn” fire in a vacant commercial building on Yosemite Boulevard in Modesto went to three alarms Saturday night as firefighters worked to put it out.
Shortly before 8:30 p.m., crews were dispatched to the 2100 block of Yosemite, west of El Vista Avenue, for a commercial structure fire. The first on scene found heavy smoke coming from the vacant building, according to a battalion chief’s incident summary.
Crews set up for an interior attack and began battling the blaze. They encountered heavy fire inside the building, even with it being “clean and empty ... pretty wide open” because there were no contents, Battalion Chief Ed Bartley said.
A third alarm was called, drawing more resources, because the fire was “stubborn,” Bartley said. A mezzanine level, sort of a storage area, proved a challenge for the firefighters because heat and smoke were worst there, he said. “They were getting hammered upstairs,” Bartley said, so firefighters were rotated to allow rest and recovery.
One firefighter suffered an ankle injury and was taken to a hospital for treatment, the battalion chief said. He is expected to fully recover.
On the damage done, Bartley said,” It burned the back corner of the building pretty good.”
The Stanislaus Regional Fire Investigation Unit is working to determine origin and cause. Because the building has been vacant, gas and electricity had been off for some time, Bartley said.
Photographs from the incident summary show a fence topped with razor wire around at least much of the property, and razor wire along the roof’s perimeter.
