PictSweet Ordered to Pay $91,000 in Compost Fire

Ventura County officials have charged PictSweet Mushroom Farms $91,000 and ordered the company to add several safety measures after a smoldering compost fire last month that shrouded much of the west county with acrid smoke for a week.

County Fire Chief Bob Roper said company officials were billed last week for the 3-acre blaze near Ventura, which broke out March 11 in a massive pile of straw and manure used to fertilize mushrooms.

“They [company officials] have been very cooperative through the entire process,” Roper said after meeting with the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning to update them on the case.

Despite an official ruling that the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion, PictSweet officials have suggested it was arson. Regardless, the company has agreed to cover the costs of dousing the blaze, Roper said.

Additionally, the company will stop storing compost in one big heap and instead stack it in 12-foot piles 25 feet apart, Roper said.

The county has also required the company to provide adequate access to the compost in emergencies. To fight the blaze, Roper said firefighters had to enter the area from adjacent private property.

The company has also agreed to monitor its compost piles with temperature gauges so that if a fire starts, farm employees can use their own equipment to begin turning the compost and dousing flames, Roper said.

The fire chief said similar regulations for all county farms have been in place for the last couple of years but that officials were unaware of PictSweet’s storage operations because most of the farm is within the city of Ventura. The fire broke out at the same property but on county land.