A multi-alarm fire shortly before 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10 caused major damage to a home in the 29000 block of River Road, forcing the occupants to seek housing elsewhere.

No one was injured in the blaze but Escalon firefighters were on the scene until the early morning hours on Monday.

“When we got on scene the roof was well involved, it was already starting to fail,” explained Escalon Consolidated Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Joe Pelot, who served as Incident Commander. “We didn’t put anyone inside, due to firefighter safety, we just fought everything from outside, it became a defensive fire. We tried to salvage as many belongings as we could.”

There were multiple calls reporting the fire, said Pelot, including one from the occupants. There were two people and two dogs displaced by the fire, he said.

Escalon had support from both Stanislaus Consolidated and Oakdale, with an engine and three firefighters from Consolidated, an engine, water tender and five firefighters from Oakdale. Farmington sent a crew to stand by at the Escalon station and Escalon had “every piece of equipment” they have on the scene, said Pelot, in addition to about a dozen firefighters.

“It was a single story home, built in the 1990s, on River Road in between Henry and Sutliff,” Pelot explained. “Cause is still under investigation, but we believe it started around the chimney, they did have a fire in the fireplace.

“We were probably a mile out and we could see flames and smoke already.”

Crews remained on scene until after 3 a.m. and Pelot said a couple of firefighters remained even after that to do ‘mop up’ on scene. They returned later in the day on Monday to check for hot spots.

Pelot said the Red Cross was not called in to assist, as the residents indicated they had a place to stay.

“Everybody got out safely,” Pelot added.

It was the second residential fire in Escalon in recent days, as a Friday, Nov. 8 fire shortly after 9 a.m. caused extensive damage to one side of a duplex on California Street. Fire officials said three residents, two adults and one child, were displaced in that fire, which occurred in the 600 block of California.