Multiple fire crews, including an engine from Ceres, battled to contain a Turlock house fire Thursday evening that broke out in the 2000 block of Royal Wood.

Vickie Trask went out to dinner with friends on Thursday followed by a quick shopping trip when neighbors called to say her house was on fire. She rushed back home to find at least a dozen firefighters spraying water into the house and using a chain saw to cut open her garage door. No one was believed to be inside the house when it caught on fire and Trask has no pets.

"I keep telling myself that it's just stuff," said Trask, while watching the flames come closer to her restored 1978 Volkswagen Beetle.

At least one passerby tried to minimize the damage of the fire.

Ronald Leonard was leaving the nearby Walmart when he say the rising smoke and decided to investigate. Upon seeing  a patch of flame coming from the Royal Wood house and no emergency crews on scene,  he took action.

"I knocked on the door and when no one answered, I grabbed a hose and started spraying down the house," said Leonard. "But it got too big so I started spraying down the neighbor's roof."

Amanda Howry lives down the street from Trask. When her daughter alerted her to the fire, she went to see if anyone needed help and saw Leonard and others trying to contain the flames.

"Within 20 minutes, the whole roof was on fire," said Howry. "You never want to see this happen."

The cause of the fire was unknown by press time.