BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Multiple fire departments raced to smother the flames of a massive fire that erupted in a southeast Bakersfield warehouse Saturday morning. If you were like one of hundreds of others today all you had to do was look up to see the smoke.
From the length of a football field away, you could feel its heat. Growing more intense the closer you get. Until you’re right next to it.
Then, it’s almost unbearable.
“Two warehouses, approximately 10,000 square feet in size each,” said Engineer Jonathan Drucker with the Kern County Fire Department. “They are stacked floor to ceiling with plastic drip irrigation, so that’s what’s burning.”
The fire created billowing black clouds of smoke, so great they blot out the sun. Smoke that’s expanded so much, it can be seen from miles and miles away.
“I was driving down the 58 westbound and that’s when I saw it,” said Cecilia Acevedo on Brundage Lane.
“It’s pretty bad,” said Pete Salazar, walking down Chester Avenue. “It’s quite a plume of smoke.”
Viewers sent 17 News their pictures and videos, showing their angle of the smoke clouds which could be seen from all over central Kern County.
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“It’s this large column, and it looks very massive, very impressive and ominous,” said Drucker, who also stressed that while the smoke is ominous and grand, and certainly not good for the air, business in the area was able to continue as usual. Save for a few blocked roads for incident operations.
“We want to assure the residents of Bakersfield that as of now the fire is contained to two buildings,” said Drucker. “We’ve looked at where this smoke’s going, right now it’s lifting, it’s not impacting the surrounding area, it’s not putting any toxins out there…we have shut down some of the roads in the area, and that is for incident operations. That’s not because of air quality.”
Even so, a fire this massive isn’t easy to put out. It takes mass resources and mass amounts of time.
“It’s requiring a lot of water supply from the hydrant system,” said Drucker. “CalWater is actually boosting the water in the area to give us adequate water to be able to keep this fire in check…at least for several hours there’s going to be significant smoke coming off these warehouses.”
And for onlookers near and far, without knowledge of what’s happening, it was a terrifying sight.
“I was scared a little bit,” said Acevedo. “I didn’t know what was going on, what was burning, I live kind of in this area.”
“I just hope people are safe,” said Salazar.