What caused the smoke in Escalon area Saturday? Fire official explains what happened
One tractor was damaged in an Escalon almond hull fire Saturday evening that took six area departments to bring under control, fire officials said.
A Modesto Fire Department engine was dispatched around 4:30 p.m. to the Roche Brothers Inc. almond processing plant on East Jones Road east of McHenry Avenue, Battalion Chief Doug Rice said.
The Escalon Fire Department was in charge of the effort, but two other San Joaquin departments and the Stanislaus Consolidated and Salida fire protection districts also assisted along with Modesto, Rice said.
Almond hull fires can be difficult to put out, and Rice said the departments worked to get the fire under control enough to turn extinguishing efforts back over to the business.
Rice said his firefighters left around 7 p.m. but San Joaquin firefighters were still there at the time.
The fire affected one hull pile, which Rice estimated to be about 200 feet long and 50 feet high, and a tractor.
Although almond hulls can produce heat and spontaneously combust when they become wet, Rice said he wasn’t sure if the hulls themselves or the tractor started the fire.
“I don’t know which came first, if the tractor caught the pile on fire or vice versa,” Rice said.
The Escalon Fire Department will continue to investigate the cause, Rice said.
Also on Saturday afternoon, The Fresno Bee reported an even larger almond hull fire broke out along the Interstate 5 in Fresno County.
This story was originally published February 28, 2021 at 7:16 AM.
