Nov. 20--MODESTO -- A fourth fire in two months at an abandoned homesite on Kerr Avenue in Modesto's airport neighborhood this time destroyed an outbuilding, which had stood behind the charred remains of the house.
If the pattern continues, fire crews will be dispatched again to this derelict property at Kerr and Canal Street. And next time the flames could spread to adjacent homes or cause injury.
Authorities suspect street people started Tuesday's 8:20 a.m. fire, though the cause was under investigation. Firefighters brought it under control in 15 minutes.
"There are a lot of transients that roam that area," said Battalion Chief Randy Anderson of the Modesto Regional Fire Authority. "They find an opening, they light a fire to get warm and it gets away from them."
As trash piles had accumulated on the site, neighbors said they tried to keep the refuse away from their fences because of the fire hazard. Some of them counted five fires on the property in recent weeks.
The regional authority and Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District jointly respond to fires in the airport area, and Stanislaus County long has coordinated services there with the city of Modesto.
The blackened property is in an unincorporated pocket just outside the city boundary, so Anderson emailed city code enforcement Tuesday to ask that counterparts with the county investigate, he said.
Elizabeth Silva, whose family lives on Kerr, two doors away, said she believes some of the recent fires were intentionally set. The family with six children is looking to move, she said.
"They (vandals) are trying to burn it down and we could be next," Silva said. "Once the homes are abandoned, people start vandalizing them and breaking glass and burning them. There is no protection for any of the neighbors."
Jami Aggers, county environmental resources director, said Tuesday evening that she didn't know whether code enforcement staff had investigated the Kerr Avenue site or contacted the owner. In cases such as this, county building officials may evaluate the structure, and if it's determined to be a danger to the public, the county can take down the home, Aggers said.
County Supervisor Dick Monteith, who represents the airport area, said he had not been informed about this particular lot.
Monteith said he has worked with Stanislaus Consolidated to address housing units occupied by homeless who are creating a fire hazard. The district also has leaned on owners to cut dry grass on vacant lots. An annual cleanup is held in the neighborhood, but abandoned homes are an ongoing challenge, Monteith said.
"We have had houses burn there, and because they were hazardous, we boarded them up (at a $2,000 cost)," Monteith said. "Within two weeks, all the boards were taken away and the homeless were in there again."
Fire officials recently have dealt with structures attracting squatters in other neighborhoods. On Oct. 27, Modesto Regional Fire Authority and Ceres firefighters were dispatched to a home in the 1500 block of Marin Avenue in south Modesto that had burned several times before. An exterior wall and the eaves of an adjacent residence were damaged before the fire was extinguished.
Supervisor Jim DeMartini, whose district includes areas of south Modesto, said budget cuts after the recession left the county with only two code enforcement officers. The unit investigates abandoned homes on a complaint basis.
"It was probably more of a problem a few years ago, when we had a lot of foreclosures," DeMartini said. "A bank may own the property, and I had one in my district where the owner died and there were no heirs. We went in and cleared it out."
Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at [email protected] or (209) 578-2321.
Copyright 2013 - The Modesto Bee
