Crews battle pallet fire in Phoenix

PHOENIX - Over 100 firefighters helped battle a massive third-alarm pallet fire near 35th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road on Thursday night.

Crews were called just before 8 p.m. and found that multiple stacks of wood wallets were burning, and first responders began fighting the flames from a defensive position.

Power lines fell and multiple explosions were reported, according to fire officials.

"Two hazardous material trucks were dispatched to the scene to mitigate the explosions," Phoenix Fire Capt. Todd Keller said.

The fire grew from a first alarm to a third alarm throughout the night due to the amount of fire, nearby buildings and heat. A nearby Circle K was evacuated.

Firefighters did manage to get the flames under control using a "Big Water" operation, hosing down the fire from ladders.

Most of the flames were out before 11 p.m., but crews still spent hours snuffing out hotspots.

No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

‘It’s a mess'

Howard Grover is a steel foreman at Saguaro Steel. He was there when the building went up in flames, watching as his workplace crumbled to pieces until parts of it became nothing but ash.

"There's like 100 and some firefighters," he said. "Knock on wood, nobody got hurt, everybody's off work.

Hector Sanchez works across the street and saw it all happen.

His co-worker translated what he saw.

"He heard one explosion. He wasn't paying attention, then heard a second explosion. That's when he saw the flames were high up in the sky up to the telephone pole."

Fire crews from several area departments had to battle downed power lines and multiple explosions. The fire started just before 8 p.m. and rapidly spread, burning through piles of wooden pallets. 

SkyFOX over the scene showed how much water was used to put out the fire. 

Grover says he doesn't know the full extent of the damage yet, and it'll take some time to get things back up and running.

"Bunch of it we won't know until we get power back, might be two or three weeks," he said. "It's a mess. We gotta find an office, scramble, get our computers back up. We got a lot of people relying on us to get steel to them."

Area where the fire is located: