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Pecan warehouse burns

• A pecan warehouse fire in Camilla sends ashes spewing for hundreds of yard.

Joshua Brown

CAMILLA — A fire at a west Camilla pecan warehouse that caused possibly millions of dollars in damage and spread ashes for hundreds of yards downwind of the blaze was still burning late Tuesday.

Several Southwest Georgia fire departments — including Valdosta, Autrey State Prison, Baconton and Grady and Decatur counties — were called in to help battle the fire, said Camilla Fire Chief Randy Walker.

Firefighters had the fire under control Tuesday and were just trying to keep it from spreading to another warehouse. The building that was burned was destroyed, with a few hot spots still flaring up, Walker said.

“We worked it all night and weren’t really making any headway,” he said from his fire chief vehicle Tuesday after temporarily handing the reins over to other commanders at the scene. “Our people were just really exhausted, so we called the Georgia Mutual Aid Group.”

Members of the mutual aid group provide assistance to other members when it is needed.

Walker said he understood that the loss to the warehouse on Baggs Ferry Road to be several million dollars, though he did not have a specific estimate.

A county dispatcher said the warehouse was owned by Camila Commodities Service and Southwest Nut Co., but a spokesperson for the companies could not be reached Tuesday.

Emergency agencies got the call about the fire at about 9 p.m., Walker said. No cause for the fire has been determined yet, and because of its scope and the amount of damage, the state fire insurance and safety office will be called to investigate, he said.

Sancoria Wallace, who lives in a mobile home park only a couple hundred yards from the burning warehouse, said he became ill after smoke from the fire made its way to his home. He said he heard a neighbor screaming and looked outside to see the blaze.

Walker said the entire warehouse was filled with pecans, which made it difficult to extinguish.

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