[UPDATE 6:45 p.m.] Silage Pit on Fire West of Fortuna

Loleta fireMultiple engines are responding to a fire at Pleasant Point Road near Christensen Lane. Please avoid the area if possible. A silage pile has blazed up at approximately 6:10 p.m. The first engine on scene, a Loleta unit, reports that they might need more assistance than the initial call out.

UPDATE 6:25 p.m.: “We’re hitting it with water right now…Looks like we’re getting it pretty good,” reports the incident commander.

UPDATE 6:29 p.m.: “We got the fire knocked down,” reports the incident commander. “We’re just mopping up some hot spots.”

UPDATE 6:42 p.m.: Two photos. The first from Fortuna helps give a sense of where the fire is.

The second from close shows the toxic black smoke that firefighters had to deal with.

Smoke from Sileage fire west of Fortuna

Smoke from Silage fire west of Fortuna [Photo by a reader]

Black smoke from Sileage Fire

Black smoke from the silage fire [Photo by Matt Toste] 
UPDATE 6:45 p.m.: One more angle. This one from the hill by Bear River.
Sileage fire
UPDATE 7:49 p.m.: And this closeup:

Black smoke Pours from Sileage Fire

[Photo by Richard Leonardo]

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mark
Guest
mark
7 years ago

what is a sileage pit??

Nan
Guest
Nan
7 years ago
Reply to  mark

its a corn plant that has been chopped up then stored in a dug out spot on the ground instead of it being stored in an above silo. If put up with too much moisture it decomposes which creates heat thus the fire

Anon Forrest
Guest
Anon Forrest
7 years ago

Why aren’t they dragging those tires away from it? And if “sileage” means “compost,” this isn’t.
Dumped tires? What? af

charles wilson
Guest
charles wilson
7 years ago

Silage is made by chopping green vegetable matter like hay or corn and putting it in a location where you can keep air off it. It ferments and makes lactic acid which pickles it. Think saurkraut for cows. Back east they use tall silos to hold it, out here in earthquake country the stuff is piled in a pit, covered with black plastic then tires are used to keep the plastic from flying away in the wind.

Derek Hoyle
Guest
Derek Hoyle
7 years ago

Looks like a tire fire to me, the black smoke is the giveaway, biomass doesn’t make that black of smoke.

Apparently this is the silage pile “on fire”, but notice the large pile of tires near it, a tire fire could ignite the silage, but it wouldn’t have such black smoke.

https://www.google.com/maps/search/Fortuna+CA+Pleasant+Point+Road+near+Christensen+Lane/@40.5854084,-124.18466,137m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Carol
Guest
7 years ago

Isn’t some silage bailed with white plastic and stacked?

B
Guest
B
7 years ago

Don’t panic it’s organic … silage

“Sileage”??

AKAKAK
Guest
AKAKAK
7 years ago

The last picture is Humboldt County’s cannabis future.

AKAKAK
Guest
AKAKAK
7 years ago

Old farmers trick to get rid of tires.