Fire damages 11 vehicles at Clawson Honda, threatens Fresno apartments

A fire at Clawson Honda in northeast Fresno damaged 11 vehicles and sent thick black smoke over the area before crews stopped it from spreading to nearby apartments. The blaze hit a business long tied to Fresno’s powersports scene, where off-road inventory and service work are central to daily operations.

Fresno Fire said the fire started around 6:30 p.m. on May 11 at the dealership near Sierra Avenue and North Blackstone Avenue. Several ATVs burned, and a large eucalyptus tree also caught fire as flames moved through the lot. Firefighters kept the fire from reaching the nearby Sierra Meadows Apartments, where residents were briefly threatened by the smoke and heat but no injuries were reported.

Local reporting put the vehicle damage at 11 units at Clawson Honda. That matters because the dealership’s lot is built around the kind of stock that is hardest to replace quickly, including ATVs and other powersports vehicles. Even when the main building is spared, damage to that many vehicles can ripple through sales, service scheduling and customer orders tied to in-demand models.

Clawson has deep roots in Fresno. Company history pages say the business began in 1936 as Clawson Motorsports Boatworks, when Jack opened the doors of his boat-building company. The same history says the operation later became Clawson Motorsports after adding Kawasaki and Suzuki in November 1993, then expanded again with Sea-Doo watercraft in 1997 and Polaris in 2004. Other dealership pages say Clawson Honda of Fresno has served the Central Valley since 1976 as a family-owned business.

The fire’s location added to the urgency. North Blackstone Avenue is one of Fresno’s busiest commercial corridors, and the sight of black smoke rising from a dealership lot was visible across northeast Fresno. Crews were able to contain the blaze before it spread into the apartment complex next door, limiting what could have become a far larger fire in a dense part of the city.

The cause remains under investigation as the dealership begins sorting through burned inventory, damaged trees and the broader disruption left behind by a fire that came within reach of nearby homes.