Fire knocked down at cardboard factory in Santa Clara
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- A fire burning at a cardboard manufacturing plant in Santa Clara this morning has been knocked down.
Firefighters are evaluating their progress to see what their next steps will be. They are also checking out some liquid propane tanks to make sure they weren't damaged.
The fire call came just after 1:30 a.m. Flames threatened power poles and prompted the evacuation of the California Paperboard Corporation.
The good news, the plant manager confirms all employees are safe and have been accounted for. The factory is on the 500 block of Matthew Street. It is burning in cardboard bales stacked 15 feet high in the storage area on the outside of the building. Overhead high voltage lines made it extra dangerous for the first firefighters on scene.
"One of our biggest concerns was making sure those lines were shut down before we got too aggressive or put ourselves in a position to be underneath them cause roughly four to five of the poles themselves were exposed to heavy fire when we showed up on scene," said Santa Clara Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Drew Miller.
Firefighters say once they get the flames out they'll have to start tearing apart these piles of cardboard to make sure nothing is smoldering inside.
The San Jose Airport is close by. Firefighters say they'll notify officials there in case they want to re-route traffic because of the smoke. Firefighters don't expect that to be a major issue. They'll be out here for several hours today.
