Lancaster business owners recall hearing sounds of explosions during salvage yard fire

LANCASTER, Calif. (KABC) -- Firefighters spent Friday battling hot spots after a massive fire at a car recycling yard in Lancaster scorched an estimated 1,500 vehicles.

The fire burned for hours Thursday, sending up thick black smoke over the Antelope Valley.

As many as 1,500 cars and 10 acres on the 20-acre property were reported to have been scorched by flames as temperatures topped 100 degrees in the high desert.

Firefighters have since gained control of the fire, but the smoke prompted a shelter-in-place warning for residents.

"I was here [Thursday] all day. I was the last business open," said Bo Thevelius, who owns a business near the recycling yard.

Thevelius and one of his employees didn't evacuate and witnessed what looked like an inferno in the recycling yard.

"Every single, maybe, two minutes, you'd hear almost like a big loud gunshot go off, and all the cars exploding. Every couple of minutes, you'd hear another car explode," he recalled.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department reported a knockdown around 9:25 p.m. Thursday. They had to contend with hazardous materials exploding along with the extreme heat, making the fire fight more difficult.

"It was a very intense hot fire with a lot of hydrocarbons, that's why the smoke was so dark and dense," said L.A. County Fire Battalion Chief Randy Perry.

Thevelius said even though his business was down wind of the fire, firefighters told him it was just out of the way to escape any smoke damage.

"They said that we were lucky," he said. "If it had been blowing the other way, we might not have a building."

Other business owners near the fire were worried that even the slightest shift in the wind would send black smoke and embers slamming into their buildings.

"The concern for us was even though the wind was going in the opposite direction, when the fire is that low, I mean, was it going to continue to kind of wick out in a radius and then start to come over here where we weren't getting all of that smoke? We we have a church across the street," said David Polak.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but L.A. County Fire Capt. Sheila Kelliher said early indications show that the fire started due to a malfunctioning hydraulic car crusher.