Firefighters working with pilots to cut off a 112-acre
vegetation fire at a Pacheco Pass landfill by 3 p.m., preventing
the flames from hitting a series of methane pipes that could have
added a dangerous source of fuel to the blaze, according to
emergency officials.
Firefighters working with pilots to cut off a 112-acre vegetation fire at a Pacheco Pass landfill by 3 p.m., preventing the flames from hitting a series of methane pipes that could have added a dangerous source of fuel to the blaze, according to emergency officials.
The fire, which started about 1:30 p.m. today from an unknown cause, sent up billowing clouds of brown smoke that could be seen across Gilroy, South Santa Clara County Fire District Captain Scott Palmer said. The epicenter of the blaze was Recology Pacheco Pass, near the intersection of Pacheco Pass Highway and Bloomfield Avenue. Recology and South Valley Disposal and Recycling – Gilroy’s waste collection provider – are both owned by Norcal Waste Systems.
Investigators are still determining the cause, but Palmer said the fire seemed to start near Pacheco Pass, possibly from a loose chain hanging and sparking behind a car or a broken break pad. It’s too early to tell, he said.
Once started, the fire turned dry, golden grass to a black moonscape and filled the air with hot, acrid smoke. The flames never touched any of the piles of rubbish, wood or concrete junk heaped throughout the property, nor did it threaten any structures on site, but the fire did creep toward plastic PVC pipes that convey methane from a nearby composting facility, firefighters said. Firefighters halted the flames, though, a few hundred yards from the pipes shortly before they brought the fire under control, Palmer said.
“A dump is a bad spot. You really don’t know what’s in here,” he said.
Firefighters also fought the fire from above, using one South Santa Clara County Fire District helicopter to pour water and a plane to dump red flame retardant. At one point, the plane accidentally dropped the chemical solution – which is extremely corrosive to paint – on a Gilroy fire engine, firefighters said. Firefighters immediately doused the truck to clean it, but in doing so, soaked the dusty, windy road below to the point where it was slippery enough for the truck to slide into a nearby shoulder. Staff at the landfill then hooked a rusty chain up to the engine’s front bumper and tied the other end to a bulldozer that pulled the massive red truck out of the mud.
“Woohoo! That’s teamwork, baby!” yelled one landfill employee as he raced up a hill after helping to free the engine.
The Gilroy Fire Department, CalFire and South Santa Clara County Fire District – an agency that CalFire contracts with – responded with more than 40 firefighters, Palmer said.
The fire comes just a few weeks after a blaze broke out near the same intersection, slowing afternoon traffic for hours. Last week, South Valley Recycling and Disposal also suffered a fire in a garbage sweeper in its Pacheco Pass facility near the two southeast Gilroy malls. At the time, firefighters did not know the causes of these fires and nobody at the fire department could provide an update Tuesday afternoon on the previous fires.
