SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. — A large fire forced evacuations in San Joaquin County outside Tracy Thursday morning.
The fire started along Grant Line Road near Seventh Street. It was reported before 2 a.m. near the GMA Pallet Recycling Corporation and across the street from the Banta Unified School District office.
About 12 homes in the area were evacuated Thursday morning by fire officials and sheriff's deputies, according to a spokesperson with the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office. The evacuations have since been lifted.
Banta School canceled classes Thursday due to the fire, according to the Banta Unified School District. It is set to reopen Friday.
According to Pacific Gas and Electric, about 261 customers are without power in the area near the fire. PG&E said the preliminary cause of the outage is due to the fire and expects all power to be restored by 10 p.m. Thursday.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
People living in the nearby community of Banta watched all day as crews took hours to extinguish the soaring flames.
"It's a massive fire," said Joshua Celstine, who lives near the scene. "My dad woke me up and I just came out to look."
Fire crews say the massive blaze was fueled by six acres of wooden pallets stacked as high as 16 feet.
"Upon arrival, the pallet yard was well-involved," said South San Joaquin County Fire Authority Chief Randall Bradley. "We did an aggressive fire attack, but we did not have a water supply so we backed up and went defensive."
More than nine hours after the flames first erupted, crews were still at the scene putting out hotspots, checking equipment and trying to restore power.
According to firefighters, no homes burned and no injuries were reported. For Diego Herrera, watching the flames torch his workplace was painful.
"I couldn't believe it myself at first," said Herrera. "Recently we were taking precautions on cutting the weeds around our water tank. We have a water tank right there. Obviously, it wasn't enough for this size of a fire."
According to San Joaquin County, the pallet yard's business license was in good standing at the time of the fire and there were no active code enforcement cases.
While investigators look into what caused the fire, Herrera says he and his coworkers are looking into how to move forward.
"We've got to come together as a company, work twice as hard as we were-- and the community too," said Herrera. (We need to) work hard to get back on our feet to provide for the families that we provide (for)."
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