Fierce CA Tomato Packing Plant Blaze Spawns Fire Tornadoes
By Clifford Oto
Source The Record, Stockton, Calif.
Firefighters were battling a three-alarm blaze at a tomato processing plant at Waterloo Road and D Street in Stockton.
Wayne Burke, who lives off of D Street near Vine Street across from the Mizkan America tomato packing facility, was using a garden hose to water down the side and roof of his house as well as the trees and plants in his yard to cool them off. Water that missed the trees and landed on D Street immediately turned into steam as soon as it hit the pavement. Feeling the heat himself, Burke said "Now I know what a pig at a luau feels like."
About a block south of the fire on D Street a PG&E line crew was staging just in case the fire melted power lines. A one point the fire became so intense that it spawned fire tornadoes within itself. One of the line workers pulled out his cellphone to record the sight and said "that's crazy!"
The fire became so intense that at first firefighters had to hose down their own equipment and vehicles. Eventually they had to redeploy them further back to keep them from becoming damaged.
The fire department recommends that anyone close enough to smell smoke stay inside with their windows closed.
———
©2020 The Record (Stockton, Calif.)
Visit The Record (Stockton, Calif.) at www.recordnet.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
