However, a representative with Gilbert Orchards said late Thursday that the plant's 60 employees would resume packing peaches and nectarines at an affiliated warehouse in Yakima this morning.
Warehouse manager Jeramy Van Vleck confirmed that the packing line was in operation at the time of the fire, but he declined to speculate on what might have caused the inferno.
"Our facility is a total loss, but we are going to keep on going," Van Vleck said in a brief telephone interview from the scene.
He could not immediately offer an estimate on the financial extent of the damage.
Minutes after arriving at the Gilbert Orchards warehouse, fire commanders quickly pulled back from trying to save the old, brick-walled building because of the extent of the fire and the danger of collapse.
Firefighters verified that everyone had left the building.
About two hours after the fire started at 6 p.m., the roof burned through. Walls and floors of the four-story structure began failing, sending a cascade of bricks tumbling into the street.
"It looks like a barbecue," one firefighter said as she passed on her way to the group of fire engines wetting down the warehouse and a complex of buildings and bin piles downwind.
The shower of sparks raining from the sky worried residents in a few nearby houses along Hughes Road.
With the help of firefighters, they began soaking the houses in hopes of preventing more fires.
Watching fearfully as the embers kept falling, Laura Clark called the experience of waiting to see whether her house would burn "really, really scary."
She packed a few belongings and helped ready garden hoses in case they were needed. Firefighters managed to protect the structures.
It was a good thing as far as Clark was concerned, noting the extensive remodeling she had done to her house.
"There's no way you can replace this," she said.
Clark said she first spotted a plume of smoke and heard somebody yelling for help. Calls to 9-1-1 sent the first of more than a dozen fire vehicles racing to the scene from across the Upper Valley.
East Valley Battallion Chief Mike Riel, an incident spokesman, said protecting the adjacent structures was the priority for firefighters as it quickly became evident they could not save the building.
Crowds were kept at a distance, but watched the fire from the Wiley City Market and other vantage points.
Ed Whitish of Wiley City said he was having a beer at Willy D's tavern when the fire started.
"That's too bad. That's a part of history going down," Whitish said.
Whitish, 64, said the warehouse had been around during his entire lifetime.
"I don't know how it started, but they've got a good one going," he said.
Mary Roberts said it was unnerving to have two warehouses burn this month. A pair of Tieton warehouses were destroyed last week in a large fire.
"It just seems kind of weird," Roberts said.
Fire officials said it was premature to make any connection.
Roberts' boyfriend spent time soaking his mechanic shop, which is just down the street from the Gilbert warehouse.
Several other building owners did the same as a precaution against the falling sparks.
A woman who lives just across the street from the warehouse watched before firefighters asked her to get farther away just to be safe.
She said she worried about how the fire would affect workers at the plant, but Van Vleck said he expected the overall operational impact to be minimal besides rebuilding the warehouse
"Things like this just make my heart sad," she said, declining to give her name.
Owners of Gilbert Orchards could not be reached Thursday night.
The founders of Gilbert Orchards came to the area more than 100 years ago from Illinois, according to the company's Internet site. Eventually, they settled on apple orchards as the most profitable venture, according to a statement about Gilbert's history.
Further details about the operation were not available.
Riel said he expected crews to work on the fire overnight.
