Have You Ever Wondered What 100 Burning Tires Looks Like?

Late yesterday afternoon I noticed there seemed to be A LOT of fire engines and police sirens. We've had wildfire smoke since August 2nd in the Yakima Valley so at first glance the hubs and I figured it was just the winds picking up and shifting the smoke, however, there was a section of the sky that looks dark orange and pretty wild. Had the fires gotten closer than we realized?

Nope, there was a building on fire.

Whenever anything wild seems to happen my first stop is the Facebook group, Yakima Scan. Here's what it read.

Structure Fire | 1600 block S 1st Street
Multiple callers
Full structure response, Training Center enroute, two call back crews paged to the fire scene
Heavy black smoke
Powerlines down
Elite Tire Center, Two structures involved and an exterior, tires on fire.
Road closures in the area
Defensive attack
Interior operations stopped, structure heavily damaged and compromised, collapse potential is high
Fire contained

The last three were added as of later but WTH? Have you ever seen a defensive attack called out over the radio? Wild! For a moment I was concerned. If you haven't heard someone was having THE WORST DAY EVER and like a movie went out in a blaze of glory in West Richland, unfortunately taking people with them. Was it happening here as well?

Nope! It was the Elite Tires, possibly mistaking their tire sale for a fire sale. Sorry, bad joke because judging from the plumes of black smoke, this wasn't an easy one to put out!

Thank you to our emergency service and fire fighting crews who run right into the thick of it daily. You are amazing.

Elite Tire Fire

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Filed Under: 1st street, Elite Tires, tire fire, yakima fire department

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