Large fire in downtown Fresno heavily damages two buildings near Chukchansi Park

Flames and black smoke filled the sky in downtown Fresno on Monday afternoon after a large fire erupted in two commercial buildings at H Street and Inyo Avenue.

The buildings were heavily damaged in the three-alarm incident. The fire erupted shortly after noon just behind Chukchansi Park.

Firefighters responded at 12:01 p.m. to the blaze with ladder trucks and other special equipment from the department headquarters, just a few blocks away from the blaze.

Fresno Fire Battalion Chief Brian Price said there was at least a partial collapse of the ceilings in the old structures, constructed before steel reinforcement was required.

Price said the first arriving units searched for any occupants in the buildings, but did not find anyone. Transients have been known to frequent the structures.

Nearby Chukchansi Park was empty; the Fresno Grizzlies baseball team is away this week.

Fighting the blaze in the heat Monday afternoon had effects citywide. Price said firefighters would not be available to respond along with ambulances in other emergency calls, because they were being rotated in and out of the intensely hot structures.

There was concern among some of the firefighters that the large buildings would collapse as flames roared through the attics of the structures.

Smoke from the blaze turned from black to white a short time later, often a sign that a fire is being brought under control.

But then huge clouds of intensely black smoke began rolling out of the buildings as firefighters poured water on the buildings from the ladder trucks. The smoke began to subside a few minutes later.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, and the amount of damage was being assessed Monday afternoon.

This story was originally published May 31, 2021 at 2:15 PM.