A ferocious fire destroyed a 1 million-square-foot medical equipment warehouse on Thursday in Northern California, sending large plumes of black smoke and debris into the sky.

The blaze prompted evacuations and a massive emergency response.

Fire crews said it could take days to fully extinguish the inferno.

“The fire ignited at the large distribution center for Medline, a major medical-surgical products provider, in Tracy, a city about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) east of San Francisco,” ABC News reports.

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Officials evacuated a large portion of the area as the wind heightened the risk of spreading embers, said Sgt. Michael Richards, from the city’s police department. The 1 million-square-foot (93,000-square-meter) warehouse is in a massive industrial park that also houses fulfillment and distribution centers for Amazon, Home Depot and FedEx.

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Medline said all of its employees and other personnel at the site were accounted for.

“We are coordinating closely with local authorities and first responders as we assess the fire’s impact and will share more details as they become available,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

Tracy Mayor Dan Arriola said the fire is burning in the largest industrial zone in the city and far away from homes.

“I understand that the fire has fully engulfed Medline and they are working to make sure that it’s contained to that particular facility,” he said. FedEx and Amazon distribution centers have been evacuated, he said.

Medline is a supplier of latex gloves, masks, surgical instruments and other medical supplies that Arriola said was key in distributing medical supplies needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A 1 million-square-foot fire is an extremely rare fire, not only in California but in the United States, and so, this is a unique fire for us and we expect to be here for a couple of days,” Tracy Fire Chief Randall Bradley said, according to CBS News.

Bradley confirmed that multiple explosions had been caused by truck tires and medical products inside the warehouse.

It is currently unknown what started the fire.

Additional footage below:

CBS News shared further:

Crews battling the fire were initially met with water supply issues that limited their efforts to put out the flames.

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Bradley said it was unclear whether the sprinkler system inside the facility was operating properly when they arrived at the facility.

“We had a good, aggressive interior fire attack, and the sprinklers were not operating, so we’ll have to find out what happened to the water supply,” he said.

Bradley said crews attempted to use fire hydrants within the facility, but noted that they lacked adequate pressure.

“Things worked against us,” Bradley said. “Again, water supply issues, low humidity, high winds and high temperatures. It was a little bit of the perfect storm for this fire evolving quickly.”

Bradley later added that the facility’s fire suppression system — which includes hydrants, pumps and alarms — had gone through inspection as recently as January, but said part of the investigation will be to determine why the hydrants weren’t operating as they should have.

Fire crews have been using fire hydrants located outside of the facility. Water pressure throughout the city remains stable and is supporting firefighters, the city said.

A video obtained from an employee of the warehouse appears to show the moment the fire started near the ceiling of the facility. Despite the flames, the video shows that the building’s sprinkler system was not activated at that time.

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