Massive fire burns at wood pallet warehouse near Tracy; 19 homes evacuated

TRACY — A massive fire erupted at a pallet warehouse near Tracy early Thursday morning, prompting the evacuation of more than a dozen homes nearby.

The scene was near Grant Line Road and G Street. It appears the fire started just before 2 a.m. 

According to the South San Joaquin County Fire Authority, the fire was well-involved by the time crews got to the scene — prompting a third-alarm response. 

A total of 19 homes in the immediate area have been evacuated, firefighters say; Banta Elementary School nearby will also not be open on Thursday, as it’s being used as a shelter for displaced residents. 

Water supply is an issue at the scene, firefighters say. Water tenders were brought in from nearby agencies. 

“I would say that without the mutual aid resources, this fire would’ve been much more devastating than it was,” said Chief Randal Bradley of South County Fire District.

Bradley credits resources like water tenders and ladder trucks from other agencies as far as Waterloo and Alameda County for helping extensively on this fire.

“We ran out of that 10,000 gallons, the water we bring with us, then had to shuttle water back and forth,” Bradley said.

Fire crews ended up using more than 250,000 gallons of water to fight the fire. 

Eucadio Martinez woke up to the fire. He and other locals said they want to see fire hydrants on their corner. Something he says is a problem if this happens again.

“The hydrant, I think, it’s necessary for the school. If this school one day has a fire, God willing it doesn’t, they should have a hydrant here. Or a special hydrant,” Martinez said. 

The county said the land is property property and it’s up to the homeowners to put in fire hydrants. 

There were some power outages related to the fire in the immediate area that were affecting around 261 people at the height of the outage, according to the PG&E map. 

Union Pacific also said they were requested to stop all trains through the area due to the incident. Union Pacific said there was no impact on rail operations. 

Due to the fire, Tracy police said Grant Line Road between the 11th Street roundabout and Chabot Court was closed. 

Banta Elementary School expects to be open again on Friday as long as they have power, the district noted. 

What sparked the fire is under investigation.