OCTOBER 22, 2016
ONTARIO, CA (FOX 11) - A smoke advisory continued through Saturday morning in Ontario after a massive fire broke out Friday, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Firefighters battled a three-alarm massive fire at an Ontario recycling plant on Friday that sent a huge plume of black smoke into the air.
The fire broke out around 4:23 p.m. at a recycling facility near Holt Boulevard and N. Grove Avenue.
Shooting Firefighters say the fire was fueled by bales of cardboard and wooden pallets. Propane tanks on the property also exploded.
There is no word yet on the cause of the fire and no serious injuries were reported. These recycling centers have huge amounts of combustible material; it only takes a spark and everything goes up in flames.
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SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
SMOKE ADVISORY
Valid Friday, October 21, 2016
This advisory is in effect today and Saturday morning. SCAQMD will issue an update if additional information becomes available.
Air quality in the Inland Empire County is being affected by a commercial area fire in Ontario, west of the Ontario International Airport between the I-10 and CA-60 freeways.
The fire is at a recycling facility with mainly pallets and cardboard reported to be burning. Smoke is currently blowing mainly toward the east and is heaviest close to the fire. If the fire continues tonight, smoke will likely settle in the inland valleys of metropolitan San Bernardino and Riverside overnight with relatively weak wind flows. Air quality will likely reach Unhealthy levels in areas directly impacted by smoke for significant periods of time.
Depending on evolving conditions, areas of direct smoke impacts and Unhealthy air quality will likely include areas of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, especially portions of Southwest San Bernardino Valley (Forecast Area 33), Northwest San Bernardino Valley (Area 32), Central San Bernardino Valley (Area 34), and Metropolitan Riverside County (Area 23).
In any area impacted by smoke: Everyone should avoid any vigorous outdoor or indoor exertion; people with respiratory or heart disease, older adults, and children should remain indoors. Keep windows and doors closed or seek alternate shelter. Run your air conditioner if you have one and keep the fresh air intake closed and the filter clean to prevent bringing additional smoke inside. Avoid using a swamp cooler or whole-house fan to prevent bringing additional smoke inside. To avoid worsening the health effects of fire smoke, don’t use indoor or outdoor wood-burning appliances, including fireplaces.
SCAQMD Advisory updates can be found at the following link: ftp://ftp.aqmd.gov/pub/globalist/Advisory.pdf
To subscribe to air quality alerts, advisories and forecasts by email, go to http://AirAlerts.org
To view current air quality conditions by region in an interactive map, see
http://www3.aqmd.gov/webappl/gisaqi2/home.aspx
For more tips on avoiding health impacts from smoke, see SCAQMD Fire Safety Alert Factsheets at http://www.aqmd.gov/home/library/public-information/publications#factsheet
For a map of SCAQMD Forecast Areas, see
http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/default-document-library/map-of-monitoring-areas.pdf
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Massive 3-Alarm Fire Sends Smoke Towering Over Ontario Area
Posted 5:06 PM, October 21, 2016, by Melissa Pamer and Mary Beth McDade, Updated at 10:27pm, October 21, 2016
Firefighters are battling a massive blaze that is burning bales of plastic bottles, cardboard and other recyclables -- and sending a giant plume of dark smoke into the air -- in the Ontario area Friday night.
Smoke billows from a huge fire in Ontario on Oct. 21, 2016. (Credit: KTLA)
Firefighters were called to a 3-alarm fire at a recycling center at Grove Avenue and Holt Boulevard about 4:23 p.m. The fire has since spread to a neighboring recycling center.
Hundreds of homes and businesses have been evacuated, according to fire officials.
A captain with the Ontario Fire Department later told KTLA that there have been no injuries to firefighters thus far.
"So we do have a couple of out buildings that were destroyed in the fire," said Capt. John Sitar of the OFD. "We have no firefighters that were injured. We have no workers on sight that were injured. We do have a civilian that had some smoke inhalation, but they're on the outskirts of the facility."
A quick wind change caused the man to suffer from smoke inhalation, according to fire officials.
A Twitter account run by the city of Ontario said a "hay fire" was burning on State Street, which is parallel to Holt Boulevard. The account later said firefighters were working to protect commercial structures threatened by a pallet fire.
Aerial video from Sky5 showed both hay bales and pallets burning on a large parcel, with black smoke towering hundreds of feet into the air.
The blaze was burning about a mile south of the 10 Freeway and just northwest of Ontario International Airport, about 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Flights at the airport was not affected by the fire.
Railroad tracks in the area were closed due the fire, the city said.
Firefighters expect the flames to continue for several more hours due to the amount of burnable fuel available.