A late night fire on Thursday, April 25 burned one modular home to the ground and extensively damaged another.

The call came in about 11:30 p.m., from the 15000 block of Steinegul Road, said Escalon Fire Department Battalion Chief Joe Pelot.

“When it came in, they said everyone was out of the house but the whole house was involved,” Pelot explained.

By the time the firefighters arrived, they found a singlewide modular home being consumed by flames and a nearby doublewide also on fire.

“In between, there was a garage type structure and there were also propane tanks near the second house,” Pelot said.

That made the firefighting effort difficult, and there were also arcing power lines impacting the response as well.

“We tried to cool the (propane) tanks down but they just kept burning off,” noted Pelot. “There are a total of seven mobile homes there, it’s on a dairy, but only two of them burned.”

The homes were on the DaSilva Dairy property and Pelot said early indications are that the cause was electrical, though that has not been officially confirmed.

Escalon had an engine, a water tender and their utility truck on scene and also called in water tenders from Collegeville and Farmington. Stanislaus Consolidated responded with two engines and more than a dozen fire personnel responded.

Pelot said Escalon crews cleared the fire scene about 5:30 a.m. Friday, spending all night at the location.

“The singlewide burned to the ground, it was pretty much already there when we arrived, mobile homes burn so fast,” Pelot said. “The doublewide is not livable.”

At Escalon High School, the PIT Care Closet is in need of some donations, collecting for the local families impacted by the fire. Contact Sue Gentry at Escalon High School if you want to donate or for more information, call 838-7073.