Blaze burns industrial building in Fresno. What made the battle difficult for firefighters

A fire in an industrial building south of downtown Fresno led to a significant response, the Fresno Fire Department said Thursday.

Flames were reported shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday on the property on East and Florence avenues in a two-story storage building of about 80,000 square feet, spokesperson Johnathan Lopez said.

The department began its typical response for a commercial fire and firefighters could see a large plume of smoke as they approached, he said.

The large building was unstable and could have been a collapsing hazard so firefighters were not able to enter the building, adding to the difficulty of putting out flames, Lopez said.

Firefighters fought the fire from water pipes up on high ladders, what they call “aerial ladder pipes,” Lopez said. Those can only be used if no firefighters are inside a building.

The building was unoccupied and not in use so firefighters had to force their way through the property’s fences as well as into the building, Lopez said.

Forty-two firefighters responded, he said. The Fresno hazardous materials team and Cal Fire also assisted.

Investigators estimated between $40,000 to $60,000 in damages, Lopez said.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation, he said.