Five semi-trucks burst into flames in Fresno. Dead hydrant hampers city firefighters

Five tractor trailer trucks were gutted in a fire Sunday afternoon near Marks and Clinton avenues in southwest Fresno, but firefighters were able to prevent it from spreading to other trucks in the lot or an adjacent apartment complex despite being hampered briefly by a dead hydrant.

“That was the challenge that we had originally with extinguishing this fire,” Fresno Fire Battalion Chief Tim Fulmer said. “The hydrant that is right here on Marks Avenue that we originally hooked up to, once we hooked the hose up to it and we tried to charge it to try to get water out of it, it was dead. That means there’s no water. Somewhere in the system of the hydrant itself, it was broken.

“That is a challenge for firefighters in that we have multiple hydrants like that throughout the city, but we don’t know until we actually come out to a fire or we inspect them. The Fresno Fire Department does inspect the hydrants multiple times a year, but in that case things happen in between these fires so this just happened to be one of them.”

Fire crews hooked into a hydrant nearby and attacked the fire. The cause of the fire remained under investigation Sunday. There were no injuries.

There were trucks parked in a line next to the five that were destroyed, and more than 20 others on the lot.

“That goes to our firefighters, getting in here and getting aggressive,” Fulmer said. “We get in and see what we can do early. We don’t just stand by. We get water on it as quickly as we can and protect those exposures because property is money, so the more we can protect the better it is for our citizens.”