Adrian onion shed burns
Fire crews from across the valley respond to shed blaze Wednesday afternoon
By William Lundquist
Argus Observer
Thursday, January 24, 2008 10:29 AM PST
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| Spectators watch as flames devour an onion packing shed in Adrian late Wednesday afternoon. A number of area fire crews responded to the blaze and there were no injuries reported from the fire. |
Adrian — Adrian Rural Fire Department Chief Bob Webb and his crew spent an icy night battling a blaze in an onion storage shed along Oregon Highway 201, but there were no injuries or reports of frostbite.
Webb said his department responded to the fire at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and knocked down the flames in an hour and a half. He said the crates full of onions continued to smolder, however, throughout the night. By 8 a.m., Thursday Webb and his crew were having breakfast in the Mirage Cafe in Nyssa, waiting for heavy equipment to arrive to knock down what remained of the structure so his firefighters could extinguish the rest of the smoldering onions.
“It was real icy,” Webb said of fighting the fire in zero degree temperatures. “It made it hard to stand up.”
He said the department had no problems with freezing water mains.
Webb said thick smoke, as well as firefighting trucks and equipment on the road, caused Oregon Highway 201 to be shut down for a time, while traffic was detoured through town by the school. He said firefighters from Parma, Nyssa, Vale and Ontario also responded to the fire.
Ontario Fire & Rescue Chief Terry Mairs said he responded with one truck and five firefighters just before 5 p.m., when the temperature had dropped to 6 degrees, but found the fire had already died down. The shed, he said, was a total loss by that time, with the heavy tin roof sealing off the smoldering fire beneath.
“We sprayed some water, but it was really not doing any good,” Mairs said.
Then the man in charge of the Adrian Water and Sewer Department showed up to tell Webb the hydrants would have to be shut down. Mairs said they were told Adrian’s 100,000 gallon water reservoir was down to 30,000 gallons.
“We decided to just back out and let it burn,” Mairs said. He said little more could be done anyway until a large backhoe could be found to help move the 20-foot-by-10 foot strips of tin roofing.
Mairs said they suspect the fire was caused by the explosion of a portable propane heater. There were no estimates of the dollar amount of the damage.
Since the shed was used for storage, and not packing or processing, Webb and Mairs did not believe there would be any job loss or economic impact from the fire. The shed is owned by an onion processing company based in Texas, Webb said.
Mairs said 40 to 50 firefighters responded to the blaze with about 10 trucks. Malheur County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Craig Smith said county deputies assisted with traffic control at the fire, along with the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
