Fresno Auto Parts Salvage Yard Fire | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Fresno, CA Fire ripped through this auto wrecking yard in Fresno County Saturday morning, filling the sky with thick black smoke.

"It was a shame that it happened because now we have a heck of a mess to clean up."

Jerry Turner is the owner.

He said one of his employees was outside using a welding torch just before the fire started.

"And he got called away on something, thought he had doused things with water adequately, but obviously he didn't."

It took 30 firefighters about twenty minutes to put out the flames. The fire started in a warehouse used for engine parts.

Cal Fire officials say it spread quickly because of the wind and dry brush that was growing outside. "This could have been a lot more serious of an incident and luckily we had a good response and the assistance of the personnel from the auto dismantling yard were helpful in getting us set up where we needed to be."

Fortunately no one was hurt.

The owner said about 4,000 tail lights were destroyed.

Turner tells Action News he's not concerned about what was lost, except for the time his employees put into a project that's been months in the making.

"The ironic thing is we've been diligently for the last two months building racks and inventor ring each tail light, so this was the first time in 49 years that we could have punched the computer and told you what tail lights we had. Anytime we can scratch those now, because that's over with."

Cal Fire officials say the welding torch was likely the cause of today's fire. The owner tells us, he has no hard feelings and that the clean-up process will start Monday morning.