Lancaster business owners recall hearing sounds of explosions during salvage yard fire

LANCASTER, Calif. (KABC) — Firefighters spent Friday battling sizzling spots after a large hearth at a automotive recycling yard in Lancaster scorched an estimated 1,500 automobiles.

The hearth burned for hours Thursday, sending up thick black smoke over the Antelope Valley.

As many as 1,500 vehicles and 10 acres on the 20-acre property had been reported to have been scorched by flames as temperatures topped 100 levels within the excessive desert.

Firefighters have since gained management of the hearth, however the smoke prompted a shelter-in-place warning for residents.

“I used to be right here [Thursday] all day. I used to be the final enterprise open,” mentioned Bo Thevelius, who owns a enterprise close to the recycling yard.

Thevelius and one among his workers did not evacuate and witnessed what appeared like an inferno within the recycling yard.

“Each single, perhaps, two minutes, you’d hear nearly like a giant loud gunshot go off, and all of the vehicles exploding. Each couple of minutes, you’d hear one other automotive explode,” he recalled.

The Los Angeles County Fireplace Division reported a knockdown round 9:25 p.m. Thursday. They needed to take care of hazardous supplies exploding together with the intense warmth, making the hearth combat harder.

“It was a really intense sizzling hearth with a number of hydrocarbons, that is why the smoke was so darkish and dense,” mentioned L.A. County Fireplace Battalion Chief Randy Perry.

Thevelius mentioned although his enterprise was down wind of the hearth, firefighters advised him it was simply out of the best way to flee any smoke injury.

“They mentioned that we had been fortunate,” he mentioned. “If it had been blowing the opposite method, we’d not have a constructing.”

Different enterprise homeowners close to the hearth had been nervous that even the slightest shift within the wind would ship black smoke and embers slamming into their buildings.

“The priority for us was although the wind was getting in the other way, when the hearth is that low, I imply, was it going to proceed to form of wick out in a radius after which begin to come over right here the place we weren’t getting all of that smoke? We we now have a church throughout the road,” mentioned David Polak.

The reason for the hearth stays underneath investigation, however L.A. County Fireplace Capt. Sheila Kelliher mentioned early indications present that the hearth began because of a malfunctioning hydraulic automotive crusher.