By Steven Barrie
The Press Enterprise
PEDLEY, Calif. — Twenty-nine homes were evacuated and more than 500 residents were urged to stay indoors for about six hours Thursday when a barn filled with pest-control chemicals caught fire in Pedley.
The fire was reported at 10:17 a.m. in the 8600 block of 54th Street, off Pedley Road, the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department said in a news release.
The barn contained 75 three-pound containers of aluminum phosphide, a chemical used to kill off infestations of rodents, specifically gophers, Fire Department Capt. Phil Rawlings said at the scene of the blaze. The owner of the home runs a pest-control business, he said.
As smoke drifted through the neighborhood, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies ordered residents living on Chifney Lane and 56th Street to evacuate as a precautionary measure. The Red Cross set up an evacuation center at nearby Patriot High School, but as of 5:45 p.m., no one had shown up.
Residents south of the fire, but not in the direct line of the smoke drift, were told to stay inside their homes until fire officials could tell them it was safe to leave.
The evacuation and shelter-in-place orders were lifted about 6:45 p.m., once a hazardous-materials team and Riverside County health officials determined the health threat was over.
Firefighters had to let the barn and its contents burn because the chemical is water-reactive and would have become even more dangerous had fire crews poured water on the blaze, Rawlings said.
About 5 p.m., two members of a hazmat crew dressed in silver-gray jumpsuits and wearing oxygen masks raked the smoldering remains of the barn and carried away the toxic remnants.
No one was hurt and no other structures were damaged, Rawlings said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, but he was not confident a cause would be found.
“As you can see,” he said, “it’s almost a complete write-off.”
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