Firefighters continue to battle a massive fire in Tracy on Friday that left a 1 million-square-foot medical supply distribution center in ruins and sent large plumes of black smoke into the sky and debris into neighborhoods.
The fire is burning at the Medline Industries facility in the 5700 block of Promontory Parkway. The structure and surrounding warehouses, which include a FedEx facility and an Amazon warehouse, were evacuated. Drivers have since been allowed to return to a majority of businesses around the area and load supplies.
Police said there were no reports of injuries, though one firefighter was taken to a hospital for back spasms.
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South San Joaquin County Fire Authority Chief Randall Bradley said the fire was believed to have started at the roof of the Medline building. Arriving crews at around 1 p.m. on Thursday found “heavy fire” coming from the roof.
“High winds, high temperatures, low humidities made firefighting very difficult,” he said.
Crews attempted an interior fire attack but “could not hold the fire,” he said.
Bradley said sprinklers were not operating and he was not sure why. There was also no water pressure on fire hydrants located at the facility. The failure of the private water system “significantly impacted” the firefight, he said.
On Friday, Deputy Chief Brian Bagley said crews had needed two fire engines to connect to municipal fire lines about 1,600 feet away from the warehouse.
The sprinkler system was last tested in January. Without being in operation on Thursday, the building was “fully consumed” within 40 minutes, Bagley said.
Video obtained by KCRA 3 from someone inside the warehouse when the fire started showed flames at the top of of a storage rack and sparks falling to the ground.
LiveCopter 3 footage showed the fire continued to rage overnight.
Bradley said at 10 p.m. on Thursday that crews would be at the site for “a couple of days” to put it out.
“This is such a unique fire,” Bradley said. “There’s probably three or four of these in the history of our country…this size of warehouse fire.”
There are about 900 employees who work at the facility, Bradley said. About 120 there when the fire occurred.
(watch an aerial view of the fire from LiveCopter 3)
Officials said embers sparked several fires nearby and a focus going forward would be to prevent more spot fires from occurring.
Crews were able to stop one of the fires that extended to a FedEx warehouse facility.
A company spokesperson said a few empty trailers were destroyed but all packages were safe and the building structure was unscathed.
Mutual aid resources also stopped two spot fires near Schulte Road and Larch Road, and near Tracy Municipal Airport.
The fire scattered debris across neighborhoods.
Kim DeFrancis, a local resident, described it as, “soft, light, crispy. It just breaks apart and, and it leaves, like, charcoal stains on your fingers.”
Aerial footage at the height of the fire showed that the distribution center fire produced a large wall of black smoke, with big rig containers and other vehicles on fire.
It continued to burn and spew toxic smoke on Friday morning, raising air quality concerns. (See more about this below.)
Bagley said fire officials were in communication with Medline Industries about letting drivers in to retrieve supplies unaffected by the fire.
“There’s a lot of medical equipment that are loaded up on those trucks that those hospitals and medical facilities are relying upon,” Bagley said in a morning briefing. “This devastating fire is going to affect e-commerce throughout the nation, definitely on the western part of the United States.”
Medline’s website says it is the largest provider of medical-surgical products.
The company just celebrated its 60th anniversary this month. It is a distributor of about 335,000 healthcare products, including approximately 190,000 under the Medline Brand and about 70,000 of those self-manufactured, according to a recent news release.
The company has 70 global distribution centers and 30 global manufacturing facilities. Among the distribution centers are locations in Manteca, Lathrop and centers in Southern California.
While Bagley said the fire could have national repercussions, Medline said its supply chain is “designed with resiliency.”
“The Tracy facility is part of Medline’s expansive distribution network, and specifically a local distribution center largely serving parts of Northern California,” Medline said in a statement on Friday. “Medline’s supply chain is designed with resiliency, scale and flexibility at its core. Immediately following this incident, Medline activated a command center and a network contingency plan and began incorporating secondary and tertiary distribution centers. Product distribution previously supported by the Tracy facility has been reassigned and it is in the process of being deployed to other facilities within our regional network to help maintain service and support customer needs.”
The company supplies major hospitals and health systems in Northern California including: Sutter Health, Kaweah Health, Enloe Health, Stanford Medicine, Carson Tahoe Health and U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
Sutter Health told KCRA 3 it did not anticipate “at this time” broad impacts to its supplies.
“Our supply chain teams have contingency plans in place to maintain access to critical supplies,” Sutter Health said.
UC Davis Health said Medline was one of dozens of suppliers it relies on.
“We are a large hospital and that means we have many different suppliers for different things,” UC Davis Health said. “ We are asking employees to be careful with supplies until we know the impact of this fire.”
A follow-up statement said UC Davis Health sent an email to all clinical employees “asking them to use supplies wisely, until we know if there are impacts, ensuring we have what we need for our patients.”
The South San Joaquin Fire Authority said Friday morning that several air monitoring stations have been established in and around the warehouse.
“Continuous air monitoring is occurring and based on that data, no protective actions are required at this time,” the fire authority said. “However, sensitive groups—including children, older adults, and those with respiratory conditions—are encouraged to remain indoors and avoid exposure to smoke whenever possible.”
San Joaquin County public health officials said respiratory irritants, toxic gases, carcinogens, and “at least one neurotoxin” are present in the smoke and could impact nearby communities downwind.
“If anyone in the vicinity of the smoke plumes inhaled the smoke and is experiencing sudden onset respiratory problems, headaches, dizziness, nausea, or throat irritation, they should report to their nearest emergency department for further evaluation and treatment,” Dr. Maggie Park, public health officer for San Joaquin County Public Health Services, said in a statement.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District encouraged residents in the immediate area who are impacted by smoke to remain indoors, keep windows and doors closed, and use air filtration.
Officials said fire smoke contains particulate matter and other pollutants, which can trigger asthma attacks, aggravate chronic bronchitis, and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Bradley, with the South San Joaquin County Fire Authority, said there were several hundred robots with lithium-ion batteries inside the facility.
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