Fire Marshal: Employees Doing Maintenance Work Likely Started Plastics Plant Fire

By Bay City News Service

The six-alarm fire at Macro Plastics Inc. in Fairfield on Tuesday afternoon appears to have started when employees used an "open flame device" during maintenance work in a storage yard, Fairfield Fire Marshal Morgana Yahnke said this morning.

The fire, which sent a thick plume of black smoke into the air that was visible for miles, started at about 1 p.m. at the facility, located at 2250 Huntington Drive in an industrial area.

Firefighting resources were scaled back at about 5 p.m. and the blaze was extinguished around 11 p.m., Yahnke said.

Firefighters from 15 Solano County agencies responded. They used water and foam to confine the flames to the storage yard, Yahnke said.

"In the end, the fire burned itself out," Yahnke said.

Three firefighters suffered minor injuries but did not need to be taken to a hospital, Yahnke said.

At the height of the blaze, the response consisted of 120 firefighters and 30 to 40 fire vehicles, including trucks, engines and water tenders, Yahnke said.

A shelter-in-place order was issued for residents within a one-mile radius of the fire. The order was lifted around 6:30 p.m.

Yahnke said Macro Plastics Inc. is open for business today.

The company makes plastic MacroBins used for harvesting, storing and shipping fruits and vegetables. Yahnke said a Macro Plastics Inc. spokesman estimated there were 15,000 bins in the storage lot.