Firefighters Battle Wood Products Blaze
Firefighters in Azusa on Thursday were having trouble extinguishing a smoldering blaze that has burned for hours in a pile of wood products that stands 20 feet high and covers about 40,000 square feet.
“The dang thing won’t go out,” said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Chris Button. “We knew it was going to be a problem from the start.”
Most of the burning has been taking place in the depths of the pile, he said. No structures have been damaged.
Firefighters were called to Fiber Fuel Products at 1500 Foothill Blvd., in an industrial area, at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. The smoky fire was burning in an open yard of wood products, which are recycled and ground into fiberboard, Button said.
Firefighters were using “deck-gun” water cannons to soak the pile. “They squirt out huge amounts of water--1,500 gallons of water per minute,” Button said, adding that the guns are six times more powerful than hand-held hoses.
A bulldozer methodically turns over sections of the pile as the fire is soaked with water, and then the whole tedious procedure is repeated, Button said.
“We are going to make every effort to put this fire out tonight,” Button said Thursday. We’re receiving numerous complaints about the smoke.”
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