Deke Farrow
The Modesto Bee
MODESTO, Calif. — Though salvage typically has to take a back seat to ensuring a blaze is extinguished, firefighters saw an opportunity to save some children’s Christmas presents and “jumped on it quickly” Sunday night, a Modesto battalion chief said.
Shortly before 8:30 p.m., crews responded to a two-alarm fire at a two-story apartment complex in the 2800 block of Prescott Road. The first to arrive could see flames coming from the attic space above a second-story unit, Battalion Chief and Modesto Fire Department spokesman Darin Jesberg said Monday.
The fire originated in an apartment’s furnace closet, he said, and spread into the attic. That apartment was the only one to sustain fire damage, Jesberg said, but it and two adjacent units also had water damage.
A total of four adults and four children were displaced by the fire and received help from the American Red Cross. No one was injured.
Crews were able to do “quite a bit” of work to salvage the apartments’ contents, Jesberg said, and special effort was made to save the gifts intended for children in the affected apartments. “They were able to save a bunch of them,” he said.
A damage estimate was not available Monday morning. The cause is being explored by the Stanislaus Regional Fire Investigation Unit.
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