Scrap Yard Fire Sends up Thick Smoke

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KCBS) -- A fire burning at a scrap metal yard in Redwood City sent up a thick cloud of smoke from burning rubber and plastic much of Saturday, according to Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman.

Schapelhouman told KCBS anyone in Redwood City, Menlo Park, Atherton or East Palo Alto who smelled the smoke should go indoors and shut the windows and doors until it dissipated. Some Peninsula residents recieved precautionary automated phone calls about the fire.

Air quality officials were not able to safely get close enough to take samples, but urged nearby residents to stay indoors.

The two-alarm fire broke out just after 8 a.m. at the facility in the 600 block of Seaport Boulevard. Weather conditions caused the cloud of smoke to spread and shift in direction.

"The fire's burning in a big mound of salvage. This is a facility that salvages metal and stuff out of vehicles mostly and there's big mountains of material on site and there is a fire inside of one of the big mountains. We're working with the folks on scene here at the facility to move the pile away so we can apply water and foam to extinguish the fire," said Fire Captain Bruce Meisenbach.