Warehouse, Packing Plant Destroyed by Incendiary Fire
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A lemon packing plant and warehouse that covered an entire city block in Carpinteria, Calif., was destroyed by the largest structural fire in the history of that Pacific Coast city in the southern part of Santa Barbara County. However, the efforts of more than 65 fire fighters from five different agencies in two counties kept the intentionally set fire that raged out of control for 6 ½ hours from extending to any exposures. The loss of building and contents was estimated at $3.5 million.
The fire building was a one and twostory, 300 X 350-foot, wood frame and stucco structure with heavy timber and steel supports. Constructed in 1937, the building was divided by a fire wall that was added during enlargement of the complex in 1955. The fire burned through the fire wall because one of the fire doors failed to function. Designed to promote air circulation to ripen fruit, the unsprinklered building was ideal for fire spread by convection as the wooden floor was raised and there were conveyor holes throughout the building.
A ranger in Carpinteria Beach State Park, on the west side of the warehouse, reported the fire to the CarpinteriaSummerland Fire District alarm room at 9:33 p.m. last August 20. The warehouse was bordered on the north and south by dwellings and by a school on the east.
Primary problem
The dwellings, which were the critical exposures, presented the primary fire problem as the fire quickly outran the efforts of the initial alarm companies. The roof began collapsing before effective interior streams could be established.
Engine 6401, one of the two threeman engine companies in the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District, responded from the district’s main station, only three blocks from the fire. Engine 6402 responded from a station nearly six miles away.
First-in Captain Randy Graham reported a deep-seated fire with heavy smoke inside the building. He directed his men to enter the structure with a 2 ½-inch line as he requested mutual aid from the Montecito Fire Department and the Ventura County Fire Department. This brought two more engine companies to the fireground.
More aid requested
Upon his arrival, Assistant Chief Norman Vincent, the duty chief, ordered a callback of off-duty personnel at 9:40 p.m. to bring the department’s reserve engines to the scene. He also requested an 85-foot aerial and as many pumpers as the Santa Barbara City Fire Department could send. The city immediately dispatched three engine companies, one truck company and a battalion chief. At the same time, the city requested Santa Barbara County units to cover vacant city stations.
Although every effort was made to extinguish the fire, it was obvious at this early stage that the main warehouse could not be saved. A massive exterior attack with hand lines, master streams and the Santa Barbara City truck’s ladder pipe was ordered.
The strategy was to keep the exterior walls standing as long as possible by cooling them. This kept convection heat going mostly upward and kept to a minimum the amount of radiated heat reaching across the streets from the warehouse. As homeowners used garden hoses to wet their roofs, fire fighters were successful in keeping the warehouse walls intact for several hours. They thus prevented any damage to exposed property.
As the exterior attack was ordered, Vincent realized that a severe water supply problem would have to be overcome. With this in mind, a five-engine strike team was requested from the Ventura County Fire Department and a hose wagon from Santa Barbara City.
Relays established
As the Ventura County strike team arrived with an additional battalion chief, a conference of chief officers and water company people was held. It was decided to relay pump from a 14-inch main more than four blocks from the fire. A second relay was set up by two Santa Barbara City engines and their hose tender. For this relay, a 1000-gpm pumper drafted from a salt water creek inside the state park a quarter of a mile from the fire. It was estimated that approximately 2 million gallons of water were used during the fire.
The first units were released from the fire about 4 a.m. and at about 7 a.m., most mutual aid units were released. Remaining units completed the overhaul with the assistance of a Santa Barbara County dozer and a Ventura County Fire Department brushfire hot-shot crew air-lifted to the scene by a department helicopter.
Senior Fire Inspector Jerry Mann of the Carpinteria Fire District, with the assistance of the State Fire Marshal’s Office and other investigators from Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties identified a suspect in this fire that left between 60 to 350 people out of seasonal work.
Fire fighters of 15 engine companies, one truck company, and a hose wagon unit spent nearly 10 hours battling the fire.
Photos by Keith D. Cullum
