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Saturday, October 26, 2002 ■ • The Record <br /> Tamma Adamek, Metro Editor <br /> Phone: 546-8275 <br /> Fax:547-8186 I .Jocall <br /> E-mail:tadamek@recordnet.com <br /> r <br /> ! . ,/P tit:• { 'T1H �' y` '�r "�., 'A M. ,/• k, is 4,X �.Y` Yy4 5 $K <br /> {{*qNl� +e 4s 3y e <br /> ' vt h, s , a •t �_ <br /> �,. 'k. <br /> 1 � r'♦ � ,ov 4 S F r �. <br /> .cord photos by DOUGLAS RIDEF <br />–FIRE RECALLED:Tracy Battalion Chief Larry Fragoso, above. two years at MacArthur Drive and Linne Road in Tracy. Below <br /> describes what it was like to fight the tire fire that burned for a truck remains in the pit where 7 million tires burned. <br /> r 'i <br /> ceanu <br /> to beg-'ion <br /> S .R0YST1111 <br /> LIRE*OISPUSAL" rf : <br /> Massive 1998 blaze <br /> burned for two years <br /> By Victor Balta <br /> Record Staff Writer <br /> r since a tiro <br /> It's been more than four years <br /> fire ignited near Tracy, but Battalion Chief ► <br /> Larry Fragoso can still point out virtually <br /> every detail of the first moments of the <br /> blaze that burned for more than two years. <br /> Fragoso, then a captain with the Tracy ble,it ignited so fast,"Fragoso said."We had cancer less than two weeks after the fi <br /> Rural Fire Protection District, was one of to get out of the pit,because it was spread- started. <br /> the first to arrive Aug.7,1998,at what began ing so fast. With $9 million set aside, the Califorr <br /> as a grass fire—a simple case of some land- "I never had a real feel for how many tires Integrated Waste Management Board is jl <br /> scaping equipment emitting a spark that it was until they were burning all around about ready to award contracts and fol <br /> ignited some dry grass. us.'! ahead with the cleanup, according <br /> The problem:That small grass fire started More than four years later, the state is spokesman Chris Peck. <br /> in an abandoned quarry pit that was home close to starting the cleanup of the site once "All of the oils created when the t' <br /> to Royster Tire Disposal and an estimated 7 owned by Silas Fred "Chuck" Royster on essentially melted in the heat are mo% <br /> million tires. South MacArthur Road,just south of Tracy. into the groundwater, Peck said. The <br /> "It seemed like the tires were so flamma- Royster died of complications from luny Please see TIRE FIRE <br />