Fire breaks out near Friant Road with smoke visible from downtown Fresno
Fire crews battled a fire into the night Thursday after flames burst out of a commercial building in northeast Fresno then quickly spread to nearby wild land.
The fire, which started just after 4:30 p.m. at the Republic Services recycling transfer station near North Rice and Friant roads, spread into the vegetation and grew as large as 62 acres due to the strong winds and dry conditions, authorities said.
“The high winds and dry weather ... quickly escalated it into a larger event,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Dan Urias said.
Smoke could be seen from downtown Fresno and caused a brief shelter-in-place order for residents east of the fire’s origin. The order was lifted shortly after once firefighters got the fire partially contained.
Around 7 p.m., Urias said the fire was at 30% containment. As of 8:45 p.m., the vegetation fire was fully contained, Urias said. Smoke was still rising from the commercial structure that burned.
The fire came within about a mile of Woodward Park.
Roughly 60 to 80 firefighters from multiple agencies responded and kept the fire from ever threatening the popular and scenic Fresno park.
Th cause of the fire out of the commercial building was under investigation.
No injuries were reported.
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 7:48 PM.
