Gilroy
– It was only onion skins burning on the roof of the Gilroy
Foods plant Monday evening.
”
There’s no roof damage, amazingly,
”
Bob Cates, manager of the garlic and onion processing plant
– one of the world’s largest – said early Tuesday afternoon
after inspecting the roof himself.
Gilroy – It was only onion skins burning on the roof of the Gilroy Foods plant Monday evening.
“There’s no roof damage, amazingly,” Bob Cates, manager of the garlic and onion processing plant – one of the world’s largest – said early Tuesday afternoon after inspecting the roof himself.
Cates said a fire in an onion dryer’s exhaust flue did spread to the roof, but the only things burned were onion skins that had collected there.
City building inspector Jerry Thome reported no apparent roof damage Monday night, but he was unable to arrange a follow-up inspection during daylight hours, according to interim city Building Official Ray Proffitt.
Cates said the dryer in which the fire took place was up and running again by Tuesday morning. Night-shift employees in the plant’s other areas resumed work Monday night after about a three-hour delay, Cates added.
Meanwhile, it may not have been smoldering onion embers that started the fire, as originally suspected, Gilroy Fire Department Division Chief Phil King said Tuesday. An “equipment malfunction” is a more probable cause for the blaze.
“The fan that was up in the flue apparently had a broken blade,” King said. It is possible that the blade “came off, started to spark and ignited the material in the flue,” he said.
This material was onion skins that had collected in a wire mesh cage at the top end of the exhaust flue.
King emphasized that fire investigators still don’t know the exact cause of the fire. Originally, they suspected that smoldering embers from a previous fire in the dryer that day – quickly extinguished by plant staff – had blown up the flue and ignited the catch-basket contents. That could still be true, King said.
In addition to onions, Cates has said the 45-year-old plant on Pacheco Pass Highway produces about 20 percent of the nation’s dehydrated garlic. International agribusiness ConAgra Foods owns Gilroy Foods.
