Oranges help put out packing house fire
While there were no more flames when Lindsay firefighters left the Suntreat packinghouse at the corner of Tulare Road and Oxford Street on Aug. 13, there were still about $800,000 worth of oranges in plastic bins smoldering in the basement of the 50,000 square foot packinghouse. On Aug. 16, Interim Fire Chief Chris Hughes said Suntreat gave him the approval from the insurance company to knock down the concrete walls remaining at the structure and tear apart the plastic bins of oranges that had been superheated into a heap. Suntreat hired an excavator to tear down the walls and rip apart the fused bins.
Hughes said most of the smoldering remains were put out without using water thanks to some innovative thinking by the excavator operator.
“Once he tore it down and spread out all the oranges he was able to squish the oranges and use the orange juice to put it out,” Hughes said. “It was pretty ingenious idea. I wish I could take credit for it but the operator came up with that on his own.”
Source: thesungazette.com