Guatay

The county’s Hazardous Materials Response Team and sheriff’s deputies responded to a large refuse fire Tuesday in Guatay, a community three miles west of Pine Valley, that forced the evacuation of 50 people after several complained of nausea.

At least 15 residents of the Paradise Trailer Park experienced nausea, burning eyes and upper respiratory problems after inhaling fumes from smoldering galvanized cans and buckets and other potentially hazardous materials that blew downwind from a trash fire set by Dave Reibold, according to Chief Jim Pilant of the Pine Valley fire station.

“It was an illegal burn,” said Pilant. “Basically, all kinds of car batteries, pieces of carpet and gasoline were mixed in a big barrel with the idea of reducing them to ashes and hauling them away.”

The materials in the barrel itself never got hot enough to catch fire, just hot enough to produce fumes, Pilant said. The Hazardous Materials Response Team was brought in to determine whether there were potentially hazardous materials in the barrel.

No damage was reported, and the 15 people suffering from the fumes were checked at a medical aid station was set up at Paradise Trailer Park. None required hospitalization.

Reibold will be cited by the U.S. Forest Service for burning without a permit and will have to pay for the services of the Hazardous Materials Response Team, Pilant said.