Hazmat Incident Sparks Hillside Fire In Tracy
TRACY (CBS SF) -- A hazmat incident at a corporate test facility in an isolated part of Tracy sparked a hillside fire on Tuesday evening, according to fire officials.
Alameda County fire officials said they received a call at 7:18 p.m. for a hazardous materials incident at a site run by SRI International.
SRI International's website says they run experiments and evaluate hazards at Corral Hollow Experiment Site in Tracy.
A spokesman from SRI International said a storage tank of Divinylbenzene was "off-gassing" as it was supposed to be doing inside of a temporary wood structure.
The spokesman said this process includes a controlled flame, and that the controlled flame may have caught the wood structure on fire and then spread to the hillside.
The chemical was likely a contributing factor to the fire, according to the SRI International spokesman.
Fire officials are warning residents of inhalation risks due to the chemical and haven't said how far the fire spread.