Uriel del Toro said the barn that burned on his property near Gilroy was full of old cars and junk He also said there was a “run in” with homeless people on the property hours before the 3-alarm fire. Lucero Benitez reports.
A bunch of pallets began burning at a ranch east of Gilroy early Wednesday morning, and spread to a barn sending bright orange flames into the sky and shutting down roads in the area.
Uriel del Toro, the owner of the Del Toro Trucking Company which housed the barn, said he believes the fire may have been intentionally set, because he's had a few run-ins with homeless people including Tuesday night. He estimated the damage to be about $5,000, because most of it was junk and old cars.
The NBC Bay Area chopper flew over 2676 Ferguson Road at State Route 152, showing the bright flames surrounding burning bales of hay. The California Highway Patrol closed the roads surrounding the fully involved blaze, which was first reported at 4:47 a.m. The Gilroy Premium Outlets on Leavesley Road are three miles away.
The National Weather Service showed a satellite image of the heat the fire was creating.
A fire near Gilroy is creating a heat signature on satellite imagery this morning pic.twitter.com/oLhFVXvB7X — NWSBayArea (@NWSBayArea) October 22, 2014
A Cal Fire captain said the fire had spread to 10,000 square feet. And despite the size the the large flames, no one had been injured and there were no immediate evacuations. Morgan Hill Fire Battalion Chief Scot Witt said it was hard at first to find enough water - fire crews had to get water from nearby city fire hydrants.
Local
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
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