Fresno firefighters battle grass fire in Central Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno Fire Department battled a grass fire that spread to the backyard of a nearby home in Central Fresno on Monday.

The blaze was burning near the area of E. Shields Ave. and N. Del Mar Ave.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire, which began with a backyard BBQ pit that was left unattended at about 1:50 pm. The fire then jumped into the next-door neighbor's backyard and burned the exterior of the home.

"Make sure that you maintain supervision of the barbecue as it's occurring and make sure that in your backyard, you have adequate clearance and have removed all the dry vegetation from the backyard due to events like this that obviously escalate quickly and sometimes become out of your control," says Fresno City Fire Battalion Chief, Bob Camp.

Luckily, crews were able to knock down the fire before it caused any damage to the homes itself. The damage was contained to just the backyard.