Massive Fire in Watsonville Storage Facility Could Be Three-Day Affair

A four-alarm fire that's slowly gutting of Watsonville’s oldest industrial facilities may not be controlled until the weekend, fire officials said Wednesday evening.

The fire sparked in a back room at , at 850 W. Beach St., around 3:30 p.m.

The blaze is a challenge for fire crews.

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The massive building, about 100 yards long and a block wide, was constructed in the 1920s using heavy timbers, solid concrete and cork—which is packed into the walls to keep the facility cool.

“We can’t access the fire,” Chief Mark Bisbee said. “It’s like a maze in there. That’s what’s making it challenging—we can’t get on top of it.”

What’s more, there is no sprinkler system inside and the building is laced with ammonia-filled pipes, a potentially explosive and toxic chemical.

"Fire is the scariest thing for cold storage," Chief Plant Engineer Bob Kirkland said. "The ammonia can be such an explosive problem."

The flames ignited in a back room packed with Martinelli’s apple cider. In fact, most of the building was full of apple juice from the company, which has a manufacturing facility across the street.

The eight employees on site evacuated safely after noticing smoke in the building, according to manager Stephanie Phillips, who was visibly shaken as more than a dozen fire engines rolled in to battle the fire.

“I have no idea what's going on,” she said.

Heavy smoke billowed from the cavernous building for more than an hour as fire crews from Salinas to Scotts Valley got in place. During that time, Kirkland shut off the “king valve” to the yellow ammonia tank, situated relatively safely with the buffer of the plant’s engine room blocking it from the fire.

Experts monitored ammonia levels in the area, as ammonia exposure can be hazardous to humans. Winds drifting toward town had fire officials on high alert.

About two hours in, three ladder trucks squared up along the roof-line of the building. The first sprayed water onto the smoldering structure as a half-dozen firefighters used to the second truck's ladder to get onto the roof.

The roof burst into flames, shooting fire at least 20 feet into the air while black smoke churned towards town.

The firefighters retreated from the roof, repositioned the truck and used its ladder to shoot a second stream of water onto the fire.

As the fire pushed through the building, the third ladder truck set up on West Beach Street to hose down the flames licking through the aging structure.

Bisbee largely kept firefighters out of the building because burned timbers and insulation were falling, and it was difficult to track where the fire was active.

At the high point, 16 fire engines, three trucks and a small legion of brass from every most every fire department in the region.

"This is going to be an all-nighter," Bisbee said. "We're throwing everything we can at it."

The American Red Cross Santa Cruz County Chapter disaster volunteers responded to provide food and water to the more than 90 firefighters battling to the blaze.

Kirkland, who has worked at the facility for 20 years, said it was hard to watch the place go up in flames.

“I’ve been coming here every day,” he said.

The cause of the fire was unclear Wednesday night.

Kirkland said there is little electrical equipment in the area where the fire started—just fluorescent lights—and that the crew takes safety precautions, such as only smoking outside.

On Wednesday, a roofing crew had been finishing up work above where the fire started, but the flames are believed to have ignited inside the building, not on the roof.

Bisbee said a fire investigator was at the scene, but it would be some time before the any conclusions were made.

A similar fire destroyed the Union Ice Company on Walker Street two decades ago. It burned for three days.

“We’re trying to save as much of the building as we an, but sometimes you can’t save the building,” Bisbee said.

Mayor Daniel Dodge, who saw the fire from his office at City Hall, on the fourth floor of the Civic Plaza building, commended the firefighters for working well together but lamented the possible loss of the facility.

“This business has been here. It’s a part of the Watsonville cold storage industry so the loss of it is not just economical, it’s historical,” Dodge said.