California medical supply warehouse fire burns for second day

Firefighters in Tracy, California, continued battling a massive warehouse fire Friday after flames destroyed a 1 million-square-foot Medline Industries medical supply facility, forced evacuations at nearby businesses and sent dark smoke over surrounding neighborhoods.

No injuries had been reported, police said, and Medline said all affected employees and other personnel at the site had been accounted for. About 120 of the warehouse’s 900 employees were inside when the fire began, South San Joaquin County Fire Authority Chief Randall Bradley said, according to NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento.

The fire started around 1 p.m. Thursday at Medline’s large distribution center in Tracy, about 55 miles east of San Francisco. The facility sits in a large industrial park that also includes fulfillment and distribution centers for Amazon, Home Depot, FedEx and other companies. Authorities evacuated the Medline building and several surrounding warehouses, including a FedEx facility and an Amazon warehouse, KCRA reported. No homes had been evacuated by early Friday, The Guardian reported.

By Friday, drivers were allowed to return and load supplies at most businesses in the area, KCRA reported. But the fire at the Medline site remained a major operation, with Bradley estimating that crews could be fighting it for days.

“This is such a unique fire,” Bradley said, according to KCRA. “There’s probably three or four of these in the history of our country…this size of warehouse fire.”

Bradley said the fire was believed to have started on the roof of the Medline building. When firefighters arrived, they found “heavy fire” coming from the roof, he said. Crews could not safely fight the blaze from inside the warehouse.

“High winds, high temperatures, low humidities made firefighting very difficult,” Bradley said.

Officials said sparks from the main fire ignited smaller blazes nearby. One fire spread across the street to a FedEx warehouse facility, where crews were able to block it and fully extinguish it, according to reports from KCRA and The Guardian.

Fire officials also pointed to problems with fire protection systems and water supply at the site. Bradley said the building’s sprinklers were not operating, though he said he did not know why. Deputy Chief Brian Bagley said Friday that the sprinklers had recently been tested, KCRA reported. Without them, Bagley said, the building was fully consumed in under an hour.

Bradley also said a lack of water pressure at nearby hydrants hindered the response and that the failure of the water systems “significantly impacted” the firefight, KCRA reported. The Guardian reported that the issues appeared to involve the warehouse’s water system, not the city’s.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. Sgt. Michael Richards of the Tracy Police Department said officials evacuated a large portion of the area because wind increased the risk that embers could spread, The Guardian reported.

Air quality remained a concern Friday. San Joaquin County officials said smoke from the fire contained respiratory irritants, toxic gases, carcinogens and “at least one neurotoxin” that could affect nearby communities. Officials urged people nearby to stay indoors with doors and windows closed.

“We are coordinating closely with local authorities and first responders as we assess the fire’s impact and will share more details as they become available,” a Medline spokesperson said in a statement cited by The Guardian.

Medline describes itself on its website as the “largest provider of medical-surgical products.” The Guardian reported that the company supplies latex gloves, masks, surgical instruments and other medical supplies and was a key supplier during the Covid-19 pandemic.