Flames burn piles of wood shavings at French Camp facility

Firefighters battled a blaze late Thursday as flames burned piles of wood shavings at a facility in French Camp, the second industrial fire in four days in the same area about a mile southwest of the Stockton airport.

A trail of smoke, likely coming from the fire, could be seen over the Modesto sky.

The fire occurred at Stockton Wood Shavings in the 900 block of French Camp Road, just east of Interstate 5, where it continued to burn Friday morning, CBS Sacramento13 reported. The company sells composts, mulches, playground wood chips, landscape materials and soil amendments, according to its web site.

Firefighters were called to the facility Thursday night, CBS Sacramento13 reported. The firefighters set up sprinklers to continually douse the flames and remained at the facility to make sure the flames didn’t spread.

Fire investigators had not determined what started the blaze.

On Sunday morning, firefighters put out a fire that burned warehouse at a French Camp Grain Co. pressing facility, producing a thick column of black smoke visible from as far as Modesto. That industrial fire occurred in the 9500 block of Harlan Road in the warehouse that contained about 52 tons of grain and three tanks with corn oil extracted from the grain.

The French Camp Grain Co. pressing facility is less than mile west of the wood shavings facility that burned Thursday night.

This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 8:01 AM with the headline "Flames burn piles of wood shavings at French Camp facility."