Officials in a Northern California city advised people sensitive to smoke to remain indoors as firefighters fought a fire in a massive medical equipment warehouse for a third straight day Saturday.
According to air monitors, air quality on the south side of Tracy — a city of 100,000 people where the Medline warehouse fire has been burning since Thursday — reached the “unhealthy” range.
South San Joaquin County Fire Authority Fire Chief Randall Bradley said in a statement that firefighters expect the next few days to remain smoky as crews continue a lengthy effort to extinguish the fire inside the building.
The local fire marshal is investigating the cause, and officials are meeting with company representatives, structural engineers and others to assess the building’s condition, Bradley said.
Officials are making plans for employees to retrieve their vehicles from the site. Meanwhile, firefighters are urging people to avoid the area and to avoid touching or moving any debris from the fire.
Medline, a major provider of medical-surgical products such as latex gloves, masks and surgical instruments, owns the warehouse.
The blaze broke out at the 1 million-square-foot (93,000-square-meter) warehouse, located about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) east of San Francisco, and sent embers flying for miles.
Poorly functioning sprinklers and hydrants with little to no flow hindered firefighters’ efforts. Officials said the problem appeared to lie with the facility’s fire-suppression system rather than the city’s water supply.
Firefighters said an outside company tested the sprinkler system in January and found no issues.