Sawdust fire in Verdi area difficult to fight

VERDI, Nev. (KOLO) -A fire discovered Wednesday afternoon in a sawdust hopper in the Verdi area was proving difficult to fight, the Reno Fire Department said.

They got the call at about 4:30 p.m. on Cabela Drive near Boomtown.

The sawdust can also be explosive, making the fire more difficult to fight. They had to be careful approaching it to put water on it.

“Obviously we have very low temperatures right now and we’re lobbing a lot of water at this to cool it, so we have icy conditions,” said Battalion Chief Brad Drum. “The water that’s going inside this elevated platform is going to increase the weight on the structure and the legs supporting it. So, we are worried about that, but we have evacuation distances set for that.”

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