Stubborn industrial fires blaze for days

Unrelated Larkspur mobile home fire leads to a
fatality
by BERT WILLIAMS, Staff Writer
Fires have been raging just south of Windsor during the past
several days, exhausting firefighters from the Windsor, Rincon
Valley and other nearby fire districts.
The sequence of fires began at Mid day on Wednesday, Sept. 10
when a welding torch ignited spilled gasoline at Cream’s
Dismantling and Scrap on Brickway Boulevard near the Sonoma County
Airport. Black smoke filled the sky for hours as firefighters
battled the blaze, hampered by exploding 55-gallon drums filled
with oil, solvent and other hazardous materials.
As many as 60 firefighters from Windsor, Rincon Valley, Santa
Rosa, Bennett Valley and the California Department of Forestry
responded to the alarm. It took them nearly two and a half hours to
bring the fire under control. There were no known injuries.
“We really have two emergencies here,” said WFPD Battalion Chief
Matt Gustafson. “The fire, and the enviromental emergeny caused by
the release of a variety of hazardous materials.” Haz-mat crews
remained on the site long after firefighters had departed.
Windsor Fire Chief Ron Collier said that a containment and
filtration system installed at the wrecking yard worked very well,
corraling the contaminated water and filtering it to state water
quality standards. Water outside the yard was clean water from
leaking hoses and hydrants, according to Collier.
During the wrecking yard fire, firefighters said they
extinguished several sawdust fires in an adjacent industrial
yard.
It was to that yard, owned by KC Trucking, that firefighters
were dispatched again on Thursday afternoon. Just before 2 p.m. the
first firefighters to the scene found a scrap wood debris pile
aflame. The fire spread to other large piles of scrap wood and
sawdust that Collier described as “a huge blaze.” Urged on by very
low humidity and 100-degree temperatures, the fire burned intensely
for hours.
“These temperatures make it especially difficult for
firefighters,” said Collier, the incident commander. “Dehydration
and heat stroke are real concerns.”A sheriff’s helicopter assisted
with water drops.
“Until we removed fuel we couldn’t do anything,” said Collier.
So firefighters contained the fire, protected equipment and let it
burn. Fire fighters stayed on the scene from early afternoon on
Thursday until 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
About 1:30 Saturday the fire at KC trucking flared up again in a
large sawdust pile. Firefighters spent another six hours with the
Saturday blaze. Rincon Valley Battalion Chief Steve Andreis said
that it may be another week before all the hot spots in the sawdust
piles have been extinguished. “The owner has a water truck and he’s
doing a good job,” said Andreis. “Whatever else he needs we’ll help
him with it.”
No injuries were reported in the industrial fires.
The same could not be said, however, of a fire that began about
noon Monday at Mobile Home Estates, located at 76 Arthur Drive,
south of Shiloh Road.
Because of their proximity to the fire, Windsor firefighters
arrived on the scene first, though once again, the mobile home was
actually in the Rincon Valley district.
According to Gustafson, the 80-year-old resident of a 1964
double wide mobile home ran from the burning structure and was
assisted by neighbor, Ray Stanton, who used his shirt and bottled
water to extinguish the woman’s clothing.
“She took a lot of heat,” said Gustafson. “She was conscious,
but not really coherent.” The woman was taken to Santa Rosa
Memorial Hospital by ambulance, then transferred to the burn unit
at Doctors Hospital in San Pablo. She died at 6:12 a.m. Tuesday
morning. Andreis said that 55 to 60 percent of her body had
suffered burns. The woman’s identification was being withheld,
pending notification of her family.
The mobile home, its contents and a car were completely consumed
in the blaze. The 30 firefighters kept other nearby mobile homes
from being damaged. One firefighter received a minor injury.