Separate fires deemed suspicious

TERRA BELLA — The Tulare County Fire Department reports two separate fires that broke out late Monday morning are of a suspicious nature.

The two incidents, less than a mile apart, were reported at approximately 11:20 a.m. Monday.

The first was at Avenue 92 and Road 264.

Battalion chief Mike Green with the TCFD, said that when firefighters arrived they found a wooden barn fully involved with fire. The 1,000-square-foot barn was built in the 1950s and sustained about $50,000 in damage. There were no contents, Green said.

The second incident, located about an eighth of a mile east of the barn, was more of a debris fire, Green said. The fire burned three to four vehicle tires and plastic bins and also damaged three nearby citrus trees. One of the trees was scorched and the other two were about 60 percent damaged.

“They lost a couple of years of production,” Green said, adding that the extent of damage in that fire was unknown.  

Battalion chief Capt. Marcial Torres said there were multiple calls on the fire as people saw smoke. While investigators couldn’t find an ignition source, the cause of the fire is “suspicion in nature,” Torres said.

On the scene were three engines, one patrol unit and one water tender.