Blaze guts garage, burns trees Fire spreads to fence, ignite shake roof of neighboring house

By Kymm Mann Appeal-Democrat

It was a busy day for the Yuba City Fire Department and Oswald-Tudor station Tuesday as crews responded to two fires in Yuba City within four hours of each other.

Marysville Fire Department also joined the fight of the three-alarm fire that ripped through the garage of the house in the 1500 block of Holly Tree Drive in Yuba City. The fire, reported at about 5:15 p.m., also ignited cypress trees along the back of the yard and caused at least one spot fire on the street north of the home, according to Yuba City Battalion Chief Jeff Julian.

"It took a while (to get under control)," he said. "The initial fire took about 20, 25 minutes to knock down."

When the first unit arrived on scene, Julian said "heavy fire" was showing from the garage area. Fire burning in several cypress trees behind the house had started the neighboring fence ablaze and ignited a shake roof on a home on Camino del Oro.

"But we were able to hold the fire pretty much to the garage area, and there was some smoke damage to the house," Julian said.

More than 40 onlookers watched as the fire crews sprayed water into the attic and foam fire retardant on the charred spines that were once rafters, now on the garage floor.

"The garage was fully involved before the Fire Department could get here," said Bonae Paustian, a neighbor who lives kitty-corner to the damaged house.

Neighbor Rick Walker said he was sitting with a friend in his back yard two houses away when he saw smoke and heard loud popping noises.

"I saw flames coming out of the garage before I even got near the house," he said. Walker said he ran back into his house immediately and called 911.

"From what I could see, it burned from inside the garage and came out the top - it was from the outside in," he said. Walker said he also saw a neighbor on the street behind the house spraying the surrounding area with a hose.

A cause of the fire or an estimate of damages had not been determined Tuesday night, Julian said.

Several witnesses standing across the street watching as crews battled the blaze said they saw the three unidentified occupants of the house pushing their turquoise Toyota Tacoma out of the garage as the fire got bigger. The truck sat at the edge of the driveway with only slightly melted headlights and some paint bubbles on the hood.

Part of the landscape near the garage was also burned black, including a large section of lawn and some decorative bark in a plant bed.

Firefighters were still battling embers smoking inside the garage and part of the attic nearly 50 minutes later, and coating the surrounding trees and fences with foam.

"It's been a busy day," Julian said as he returned to the scene.