Fire burns home northeast of Clovis

A Sunday afternoon fire damaged at least 25% of a home northeast of Clovis.

The Fresno County Fire Protection District responded to the 7900 block of Nees Avenue after receiving reports of a vehicle on fire under a carport. Capt. John Dominguez said the blaze had extended into the attic of the 2,500-square-foot home by the time firefighters arrived.

The husband and wife were at home when the blaze began, Dominguez said, but they escaped without injuries.

He did not know how the fire started.

Fresno and Clovis fire departments assisted the county in containing the blaze, using 21 personnel.

Seven older vehicles were parked in the yard, including one that looked severely damaged by fire. A metal frame was all that remained of the carport.

Plastic tarps patched the roof of the burned home, weighed down with bricks. Smoke spewed from the home as firefighters used rakes to tear wooden shakes off in case flames smoldered underneath.

Neighbor Jim Rocha was sitting at his mother’s dining room table across the street when he smelled smoke. Outside he saw a “tiny bit of white smoke” pushing out the sides of what he thought was the garage door. He heard a couple of pops.

“I jumped on the phone and called 911,” he said.

Rocha said he answered a lot of questions, meanwhile getting nervous the fire would grow. “As soon as she (the 911 operator) said, ‘Do you see fire?’ flames just started shooting out,” he said.

Flames surpassed the two-story home’s fireplace, Rocha said. He hosed down his mother’s roof before joining neighbors outside to watch firefighters suppress the blaze.

This story was originally published August 9, 2015 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Fire burns home northeast of Clovis."