HOLLISTER
A fire this morning at the closed GAF Leatherback Corp. plant was met with a quick response from the Hollister Fire Department and resulted in minimal damage.
The small blaze was just a block away from the warehouse, which closed in 2007 after decades of manufacturing roofing felts and building paper.
“It started when the construction crews were cutting down the old tar saturation equipment,” Fire Chief Fred Cheshire explained. “I’m not sure if it was an open flame torch, or a saw that was throwing off sparks, but it started a small blaze in the residual tar.”
McCray Street was blocked for about an hour by fire hoses hooked up to the hydrant across the street from Leatherback. Members of the Hollister Police Department directed vehicles into the Clocktower Plaza shopping center to negotiate a short stretch before returning to the road.
According to Cheshire, the blaze was “knocked down” by Leatherback’s still-functioning sprinkler system before his crew got into the building, but the situation remained dangerous.
“The pieces they had cut were still hanging,” explained the fire chief. “There were partially cut, big overhead walkways made of metal that could have come down in a fire.”
Cheshire’s crew never had to extinguish a blaze, but they were working hard at opening up holes in the side of the building to clear the smoke at around 11 a.m. Thursday.
“We could get on the roof to open it up,” commented Cheshire, “but these old buildings can be dangerous, and this situation is nothing I’m going to get my guys hurt over.”
