After an overnight battle against a massive fire that broke out late Wednesday at an e-waste recycling storage yard, Stockton firefighters got the blaze under control Thursday morning.
But the fire sent a plume of thick black smoke across the city and polluted runoff into storm drains.
About 40 firefighters, aided by three of the city’s four aerial ladder trucks, fought the blaze at Zarc Recycling, 2422 S. California St., throughout the night after the initial alarm about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Assistant Fire Chief Brandon Doolan said.
Crews had to contend with burning car batteries, 55-gallon drums of various plastic components and all sorts of smoldering, spent electronics.
Besides the ladder trucks, eight engine companies responded to the fire.
Doolan said it was a tough fight from the start. A couple of fire hydrants near the plant were dry, prompting officials to call in water tenders — trucks that haul enormous quantities of water — from neighboring departments. No firefighter injuries were reported, and the cause of the blaze is under investigation.
The fire was centered in an aging, concrete multi-story warehouse. The firefight centered on keeping flames from spreading to nearby buildings. Fire crews not only kept steady streams on the blaze from above, but entered the warehouse to try to deal with the fire directly.
“We did a really good job of getting it surrounded,” Doolan said. But because of the nature of the fire — burning plastics and other e-waste where flames can flare back up — “we are still throwing water on it now,” Doolan said early Thursday.
Zarc says on its website that it accepts e-waste as well as a wide variety of recyclables, from plastic foam packaging to appliances and all types of batteries. The company was founded in San Francisco in 2004, moved to South San Francisco in 2008 and then opened a second location in Brisbane, another Bay Area enclave. Its processing facility was moved from Brisbane to Stockton in 2018.
Zarc says that it has corporate customers across the U.S. and that its knowledge of “regulations and perseverance to go the extra mile helps our customers meet and beat their recycling expectations.”
A man answering the phone at Zarc’s offices in South San Francisco said that the owners are still assessing the situation and that the company had no comment at this time.