By Catherine Bowen
The Vallejo Times Herald
FAIRFIELD, Calif. — Firefighters from around Solano County joined in an hours-long battle against flames of a six-alarm fire outside a plastics manufacturing company that sent a column of black smoke visible for miles.
Authorities said “employee error” is suspected in the blaze, which began shortly after 1 p.m. in the storage yard outside Macro Plastics on Huntington Drive, near Travis Air Force Base..
Fire Marshal Morgana Yahnke said authorities received several calls reporting the fire at the business, a “plastics injection molding facility” that creates MacroBins for commercial and agricultural storage.
“The fire, to my knowledge at this point, started outside the building and what has been burning are the storage bins that are staged within the yard,” Yahnke said as the fire burned.
A towering column of jet-black smoke visible as far as Contra Costa County was fueled by the stacks of burning white plastic crates.
The fire quickly escalated to two alarms. Fire crews from the Fairfield and Vacaville city fire departments, the Vacaville, Cordelia and Suisun City fire protection districts, and the Solano County Office of Emergency Services were called in to battle the blaze.
Nearly two hours after the fire was reported, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District requested a reverse 911 call to urge residents living within a one-mile radius to “shelter in place.” The BAAQMD also asked nearby businesses to voluntarily evacuate.
Aaron Miguel, an employee of a neighboring business, said Faifield police told him and his coworkers to evacuate the building and they were not allowed to return as of Tuesday night.
“It’s very difficult because the bins are plastic, they are a hydrocarbon-based product, they put off an intense amount of heat, they’re similar to a tire fire,” Yahnke said. “It just takes a lot of water and a lot of time.”
The county hazmat team was also summoned because of concern over toxins generated by the burning plastic.
At its height, the fire was elevated to six alarms and 21 fire apparatuses were being used to fight the fire, which finally started to break around 4 p.m., three hours after it was
reported. The shelter in place request was finally lifted at about 5:45 p.m. a half an hour before the fire was contained.
Fairfield Fire Chief Vince Webster said environmental health officials were checking storm drains to ensure that the melted plastic wasn’t entering water drainage areas.
No one was injured, and the initial investigation indicated the blaze may have started as the result of “employee error” during routine maintenance around the yard, said Fairfield Communications Manager Gale Spears. The employee was apparently cleaning the bins using some kind of torch, Spears said, noting that that was part of the usual routine, when the bin caught fire.
As of press time, no damage estimates were available.
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