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Team CoverageA huge fire and a heavy plume of smoke erupted near the Salt Lake International Airport today. It started with a fuel tank explosion at one company near 4300 West and 700 South and spread next door to wooden warehouse pallets.
There's no fire left now, just some smoking ruins. Firefighters were able to bring it under control relatively quickly. But the first few minutes were dramatic and intense.
The fire lit up the sky with intense orange flames and then darkened it with heavy black smoke. A truck driver saw it start as he delivered a load of scrap to the Western Metals company.
Joe Manzanares said, "[I was] getting ready to get on the scale when all of a sudden something exploded. [There were] big old flames back by the fuel tanks there."
The flames spread across a fence to neighboring businesses.
Ricardo Rio of Rio's Auto Recycling said, "No one was hurt. It started with one explosion. And so everybody, we got out of there."
In those initial moments the fire threw another curve at firefighters.
Manzanares said, "It hit power lines and started shooting sparks everywhere."
Another truck driver, J.L. Hiatt, said, "Yeah, they (the power lines) turned red for just an instant. Very bright."
The electrical disturbance triggered at least four small grass fires in the area; four more headaches for firefighters.
Early on, crews on opposite sides of the fire had trouble communicating. But those problems were quickly ironed out. Ladder truck crews managed to get major streams of water flowing, and a few minutes after that, the raging blaze was tamed.
Numerous small companies rent space from Rio's Auto Recycling.
"How are they going to pay rent if they can't sell their pallets?" Ricardo Rio asked. "But fortunately it was just the two pallet companies and about 50 cars that were destroyed."
There's no getting around it; wooden pallets make for some spectacular fires. Just to be clear about this, this is a different location, different companies, than the one that had a memorable pallet fire a few months ago.
Now that the fire's contained, investigators are finishing their work. They think a small explosion on the east side of the property started the fire and led to a chain reaction that intensified the blaze.
Investigators believe a worker at Western Metals Recycling was driving a forklift with a 400-gallon gas tank on top.
Scott Freitag, with the Salt Lake City Fire Department explained, "For some reason the tank fell off the forklift, spilled some fuel on the ground, came in contact with a spark or a heat source of some sort and caused a small explosion."
A trucker who was dropping off a load of scrap metal, Brent Young, says he saw the forklift driver brake suddenly, and then the gas tank fell off.
"I watched it go over the edge, and when it ignited the gas was still pouring underneath all the other containers and I knew there'd be a couple of explosions. I knew there was," he said.
The fire quickly spread to an electrical box and power pole, causing power lines to spark. Those sparks started other small fires in the area, including a nearby grass fire.
About 150 pallets burned as well as dozens of cars, a shed, power equipment, and more than 400 gallons of gasoline.
Detectives say damages will easily be more than $100,000. Since it was an accident, authorities say criminal charges won't be filed. The fire department says OSHA will most likely investigate.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
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