Fire tears through large Fresno County home

FRESNO COUNTY (KFSN) -- Explosions at a Fresno County mansion sparked a fire that quickly spread through the 12,000 square foot home, according to Cal-Fire Fire. And now a family of eight is without a place to live.

Firefighters responded to a home in the Shenandoah Farms Divisions at about 6:30 Tuesday morning. Crews said the fire started in the garage then spread throughout the enormous property.

Diane Rocco who lives two houses down from the property said, "We heard a couple of explosions. We were asleep and kind of looked out the window, and there's fire trucks coming all over the place."

Firefighters said the flames moved quickly from the garage and was almost impossible to stop.

"We have a more than 10,000 square foot residence, multiple stories, heavy fire content, heavy fire load," said Dustin Hail, Cal-Fire.

The biggest problem was a lack of water. Rocco watched as the firefighters hoses sputtered.

"It just got bigger and bigger and there was no water. They put up the big crane and it just kind of dribbled down and didn't do much."

The homes in the development known as Shenandoah Farms are all on wells, the hydrants are looped into the system, and it's evidently not very effective.

"Due to this area in the county of Fresno we have warf hydrants, some of those don't have very much water supply. So we've had an extended operation getting water from the hydrants at Shepherd and Fowler. An extended operation just to mitigate the flame spread and the fire spread," said Hail.

Hoses were run 4,000 feet to the nearest city of Clovis hydrant on Shepherd Avenue.

Firefighters from the County, the city's of Fresno, Clovis, and Reedley, along with the Air National guard, were called in.

Fortunately, nobody was hurt and the family is with relatives.

The is an area known for its lack of water. The 29 home subdivision was approved by the county supervisors in 1995. In 2001, they denied the construction of three more homes because the hydrologic studies determined there was not enough water.

Residents told Action News they have plenty of water coming through their taps, but evidently not enough to deal with a major fire.