FRESNO (KMJ) — The blaze which put a fiery orange dot on the northwest Fresno horizon this Thursday morning is now under control, but issues over getting enough water to the scene is why it’s been left to burn itself out.
“Not that we don’t have enough firefighters”, says Fresno Fire’s Pete Martinez, “we don’t have enough water”.
With no hydrants close by – and no other local source of water – Fresno Fire was forced to truck water to the scene to deal with the flames.
The yard where the fire was located was being used to store power poles – and the estimated cost of the damage done has been put as high as $3 million.
“We have a large number of combustibles packed within an area that has what we call ladder fuels, grasses and smaller, finer fuels”, explains Chief Lawrence French.
“Does it happen often – no. But we have had an incident like this at this location or a nearby location within the last five years”.
That previous incident also involved power poles – and it has been suggested that the coating used on the poles has added to the ferocity of the flames. The railway line running parallel to Golden State was between the road and the fire itself – and crews could be seen spraying the line with water to ensure the heat didn’t cause the rails to buckle.
Crews from the yard – operated by Mcfarland Cascade Holdings Inc – could be seen hurriedly moving power poles out of the way of the flames while a water barrier was used to protect the workers from the flames.
At it’s height – the flames were spread over almost three acres of land and the smoke from the blaze could be seen as far away as Hanford.
