***UPDATE***
On Monday,Linda and Marysville Fire Chief Kyle Heggstrom said the fire was controlled and in the “mop-up stages.”
“Due to the collapse of the building, I do anticipate some smoldering and smoke,” Heggstrom said in an email to the Appeal on Monday. “Crews will be monitoring and periodically working on the incident.”
***UPDATE***
Area firefighters were still fighting a smoldering fire Saturday morning at the Glacier Ice building in Marysville that has now been completely destroyed from a blaze that began early Friday afternoon.
Referred to by some in the community as the “Ice House,” the building along B Street had been used recently as more of a storage facility for ice distribution, according to officials. Because of the massive amounts of plastic bags of ice the facility managed and the historic nature of the building, firefighter crews faced extremely challenging conditions.
Linda and Marysville Fire Chief Kyle Heggstrom said crews began attacking the fire at about 2:20 p.m. Friday.
“After last night’s initial fire attack … we’ve had multiple streams on it, multiple hose lines and unfortunately it (the fire) kept moving through the building, through void spaces and other places,” Heggstrom said Saturday morning. “We continued working through the night, but just due to the fuel loading and the center of the building it has been a little difficult to extinguish, so this morning we brought in additional resources just to finish extinguishing it.”
At one point during the night, Heggstrom was forced to let the building burn.
“Due to the magnitude of the fire and the size of the building and the fuel loading, at one point in time we just weren’t making effective fire control,” Heggstrom said. “What happens is as the building collapses in on itself and it covers itself up, it gets very difficult for us to move that debris around and get under it. So at one point I did have to slow down fire flows, allow it to get some steam and burn some of that area off so we could finish extinguishing it.”
Heggstrom confirmed that because of what was inside the building and what it was made of, this structure fire posed unique challenges.
“This was an ice house and from what I understand and from what we’re gathering, was there were numerous ice bags stacked on pallets,” Heggstrom said. “And as a plastic component, once it burns and melts down it creates a real flammable material. And then when you have the structural members on top of that, it gets real difficult for us to get under those structural members and extinguish those ice bags.
“Once those started burning it just became very difficult. It would have taken a lot of water, so at that point we had to kind of let it do its thing so we could finish extinguishing it. At that point that portion of the building we already considered it a loss, so we decided let’s finish extinguishing after we get the material burning a little bit.”
Since first battling the fire, a massive amount of water has been used to extinguish it. Officials at the scene on Saturday estimated that millions of gallons of water have already been used as steady streams continued to be poured on hot spots throughout the morning.
Due to the amount of water needed and extracted from city resources, Cal Water officials coordinated with Heggstrom and his team as water pressure flows became noticeable. At one point during the night, Marysville residents were notified by Cal Water to conserve water.
On Saturday morning, Heggstrom said any concerns about water and availability were eased.
“Yesterday during our initial attack we had four ladder trucks with aerial streams, numerous large water streams off the engines,” Heggstrom said. “We contacted Cal Water, they were able to boost the water pressure system to get it to a manageable portion. But even with that amount of flows we did bring the system down to a low psi (pounds per square inch) for the full city of Marysville. So we backed off some of the flows and let it regain and get back to where it needed to be, but we did have water through the entirety of the incident.”
On Saturday morning, Heggstrom said crews would be working the fire throughout the weekend and possibly into next week.
“It’s going to stay hot for a good three or four days just because I don’t feel comfortable putting guys in there to stir up this debris and work in the different parts (of the building),” Heggstrom said.
While there have been no reported injuries to anyone in the public, Heggstrom did say that “multiple members of the fire department” did experience some heat exhaustion as crews battled the blaze in the searing summer heat.
“We were able to put them in some cooling areas and get them cooled down and controlled. Nobody was transported to the hospital and we had no significant heat illness,” Heggstrom said.
Asked what was the biggest challenge of the fire, Heggstrom acknowledged the high temperatures and the building itself as contributing factors.
“I do think the biggest challenge of this fire was the heat yesterday (Friday). The heat was tremendous,” Heggstrom said. “The fact that the fire got well established in the building of origin, and it had come through the roof and actually vented itself – caused some construction issues, caused some issues with the components being weak, so the interior crews were kind of held back because I didn’t want it to collapse (on them). And then just the historic nature of the building caused some other issues as well. This is a heavy timber bowstring construction building and this construction when they do catch fire is very difficult. So just the heat in general, the construction type, the materials in there, and just (everything) overall.”
Heggstrom said no other buildings around the Glacier Ice facility were damaged or caught fire as a result of the incident. However, some debris did fall on the railroad tracks directly next to the building, but that debris was quickly removed.
“We had a partial collapse on the rail lines,” Heggstrom said. “Crews initially removed all the debris off the lines. We extinguished a couple of railroad ties that were burning to make sure we didn’t impact the railroad.”
Because crews have been battling the fire since Friday afternoon, Heggstrom said several firefighters, including himself, have been working extended hours.
“These individuals here they’ve been working this for about 18 hours,” Heggstrom said. “They’re actually going back on a second shift. We’re going to start rotating crews for rest and recuperation and get the people some sleep and then we’re going to bring in some additional mutual aid resource into the city to assist us with this operation.”
Heggstrom said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
“We do know that the room of origin was under renovation,” Heggstrom said. “It was unoccupied at the time. Preliminary reports are the doors were secured, so we’re trying to figure out the circ*mstances and we’re just really working through that investigation portion.”
On Saturday morning, one lone car was situated next to the still burning building. Heggstrom said there were other employee cars that had to be left next to the building as crews battled the fire Friday. Most were able to get their vehicles moved, but one remained.
“Crews did a great job. There were four cars in the front that were employee-owned,” Heggstrom said. “We didn’t lose any of those cars. Unfortunately their keys were inside the building, so we couldn’t get the keys. As they brought spares, firefighters actually moved their cars and brought them to them. That was the last one there, it did sustain some damage from the collapse. We asked for the keys, we just couldn’t get it out in time.”
Heggstrom said several different area departments aided in the fire. He noted that crews from Marysville, Linda, Wheatland, Olivehurst, Yuba City, Cal Fire NEU, Butte County, Gridley, and Beale Air Force Base all helped battle the blaze.
“Just an exceptional group of individuals,” he said. “... It was just great. The cooperativeness came together and really in a timely manner. … A lot of damage, but I do like the effort that was put forth.”
