Yard full of logs burns at Auberry mill. May take 5 days to fully extinguish, Cal Fire says

Firefighters responded to a fire in a stack of logs in Auberry on Wednesday afternoon at a lumber yard.

Cal Fire Division Chief Michael Bowman said the fire broke out about noon in a one-acre lot of seasoned logs about 25 feet high on Auberry Road.

The blaze spread quickly beyond the lot, but firefighters were able to contain the fire at three to four acres with fixed wing and rotor aircraft repeatedly hitting the blaze.

By 3 p.m. firefighters were focused on putting out remaining hot spots, but it might take up to five days to fully extinguish it due to the amount of lumber, Bowman said.

Some residents above the fire were evacuated along Frazier Road and SJ&E Road, and the town of Auberry was on a standby notice.

All evacuations were lifted Wednesday evening, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said.

To check if a specific address is under an evacuation order or warning, visit maps.fresnosheriff.org.

Power was shut off in the eastern Fresno County communities of Auberry and Tollhouse and parts of Prather, according to the PG&E outage map.

The fire was not at the old Auberry sawmill site recently re-started by Kirk Ringgold. He told The Bee the fire was down the road from that location and across the street from Sierra Auto Body.

This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 12:56 PM.