Fire burns through downtown Stockton warehouse

STOCKTON — Fire crews battled a large fire near downtown Stockton on Thursday that sent large plumes of acrid black smoke into the sky that could be seen as far away as Lodi.

Five homes were damaged by the fire, one possibly destroyed, according to witnesses.

Reports on Stockton Firefighters Local 456’s Facebook page called it a four-alarm fire, but Stockton Police Officer Rosie Calderon, who helped answer media questions at the scene, said it was a three-alarm fire.

The fire broke out at about 5:15 p.m. Thursday, in a warehouse in the 2100 block of East Weber Street, according to neighbors. Firefighters said it officially was under control by 7:45 p.m.

Dozens of residents gathered at Myrtle and B streets to watch flames dance high above the rooftops of warehouses along an unnamed street that serves as a driveway between Myrtle Street and Weber Avenue.

Residents Alice Sanchez and Beanney Baca were returning home from the grocery store when they saw the flames emerging from behind the homes that line nearby Myrtle Street.

Sanchez said a pile of pallets left outside the warehouse caught fire.

“(The flames) blew up three or four cars, jumped over to a home, blew up power lines,” she said. “There are people at work who probably don’t know their homes are either on fire or close to being on fire.”

There were at least three loud pops from near the warehouse at about 5:45 p.m. Witnesses on the scene said there had been periodic explosions.

“Every Stockton Fire apparatus is committed to this fast-moving, volatile fire,” the Firefighters’ Facebook page said. Mutual aid from a number of departments had been requested, according to the Firefighters’ Facebook page.

In addition, the post said the fire had pushed through one commercial property and threatened more than five homes.

At least one home in the neighborhood was destroyed by the fire, and rooftops on Myrtle began to smolder. Crews from Waterloo Fire District and Manteca Fire Department were called to assist.

Police closed East Weber Avenue and B Street, and firefighters evacuated nearby homes.

Sanchez and Baca said the company responsible for the pallets was allowing them to collect on the street that serves as a driveway on B Street between Myrtle Street and Weber Avenue.

“Where (the company) was putting (the pallets) was basically right in the middle of the street,” Baca said. “They were piled so high it was easy for the flames to get to the trees and wires. People were evacuating their neighbors out when it broke out.”

Baca and Sanchez said many in the neighborhood had called the city and the fire department over the past year with concerns that the pallets would create a hazard to nearby homes. They were unsure if a representative from the city had ever come out to inspect the business.

A spokesperson for Stockton Fire Department was unavailable Thursday night.

The warehouse is on the north side of Weber Avenue, but strong winds blowing north to south pushed a huge plume of dark gray smoke over the Crosstown Freeway and spread embers across the neighborhood.

Three railcars belonging to Central California Traction, a company that operates the Stockton Public Beltway at the Port of Stockton, were damaged by flames as well. A representative was unavailable Thursday night.

Baca and Sanchez said a pile of tires caught fire about a year ago in the same location.

Stockton firefighters have fought eight other four-alarm fires since 1994, according to Record archives.