Fire causes extensive damage to Kennewick produce warehouse

Kennewick firefighters noticed smoke in the area of W. Railroad Avenue late Tuesday night, and stopped to see if they could figure out where it was coming from.

After some investigating, they determined that the smoke was coming from the Baker Produce warehouse in the 200 block of the road.

Crews were called out to the scene at about 11:30pm, and were on the scene through the night putting out the fire, which continued to smolder several hours later.

"The majority of the second floor is involved," said Kennewick Fire Chief Vince Beasley. "There's smoke damage throughout the structure, probably 40 to 50% of the second floor on the west end of the building is damaged, with some collapse."

Beasley pointed out some smoke still seeping from the building at about 4:00 am, and said it was potatoes still burning inside the structure.

Several different local fire agencies responded to the three alarm blaze, along with dozens of personnel and as many as 18 engines and other apparatus.

"We realize how physical this job can be at times, and we want a core of personnel available and ready so we can exchange people out so, so we can keep them hydrated, and we prevent injuries that way," Beasley said. "The fresher the bodies are, the less likely they are to get injured, so we did to go a third alarm on this particular fire requesting all our people come in to assist with this fire."

Beasley said they haven't been able to determine a cause for the fire yet.