By Cecilia Chan, D.S. Woodfill and Eric Watson The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Jul 1, 2013 9:50 AM
The Maricopa County Air Quality Department was monitoring the air near the Tent City Jail on Friday night because of a large mulch fire that injured one firefighter in southwest Phoenix, officials said.
The winds were blowing in the opposite direction of the jail, but the ADEQ was monitoring it in case it became unsafe to breath in the jail, officials said.
Chris Hegstrom, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, said the inmates would be moved to different facilities if in fact the air was unhealthy. He was not aware of this ever happening before.
One firefighter was taken to the hospital for heat-related injuries while battling the fire that began around 4:40 p.m. near 35th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road.
North and southbound lanes between Lower Buckeye and Broadway roads on 35th Avenue are closed to traffic because of the fire, Phoenix police spokesman Steve Martos said. He advised drivers to avoid the area completely.
Martos said the roads will remain closed until the Fire Department gives the OK to lift the closure.
The fire is about a quarter of a mile from the Lower Buckeye Jail and at this time the air quality for the facility is not affected, Phoenix fire spokesman Jonathan Jacobs said.
A piece of heavy equipment started the large fire on top of a mulch pile about 50 to 60-feet high at Southwest Forest Products at 3250 S. 35th Ave., Jacobs said.
Jacobs estimated the fire to be about 15 acres and said it ignited when workers were using a front loader to move the mulch around.
Jacobs said it spread to some junk in the area that contains debris including old tires. He said it would take crews late into the night to put it out.
“It’s going to be several hours,” he said. “I would say late into the evening. I’m talking probably one-two o’clock. These don’t go out all that quick.”
Jacobs said the approximately 60 firefighters face several challenges.
He said the fire is in a hard-to-access area and they’ve had to lay thousands of feet of hose through a junk yard he called “gigantic.” It’s also near a rail yard which could have dangerous chemicals.
The material burning, which is bark and chopped up foliage, is also extremely stubborn fuel when battling a blaze.
Mario Hernandez, who said he works in the company’s human resources department, couldn’t estimate the monetary loss from the fire. However, he said the company’s primary business was producing wood palettes. The mulch is just a secondary source of revenue.
“It seems like it being contained pretty well,” he said. “When it first started, it was pretty bad.”
Hernandez said they lost some trailers and the front loader. He said no one was injured and that there were less than 10 employees on site when the fire started.
The extreme temperatures, which were about 114 degrees according 12 News, were making conditions harsher than usual for the crew members.
The fire is in the same area of Phoenix where another mulch fire claimed the life of Phoenix firefighter Brad Harper. Jacobs said Friday’s fire was not burning on the same property, however.
Harper, 23, died May 19 of injuries he suffered while working with crews battling a first-alarm mulch fire in south Phoenix.
Department officials said the firefighter was trapped between two emergency vehicles and was transported to the hospital in extremely critical condition. The Phoenix Police Department is investigating the accident, which happened around 5:30 p.m. in the area of 39th Avenue and Miami Street. The fire department was responding to a fire at a fertilizer company, according to fire officials.
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