Update: Fire crews leave Foster Farms after gas leak. They’re letting tank bleed dry
3:30 P.M. UPDATE: Fire crews have left the Foster Farms facility in southwest Fresno following a carbon dioxide leak Friday, and employees have been sent home for the day.
After several attempts at shutting off the CO2 leak, crews determined it was safest to just let the CO2 tank bleed itself out, “which might take a very long time,“ Fresno Fire Department information officer Johnathan Lopez said.
There is no threat to the surrounding neighborhood, Lopez said.
The lack of visibility and cold temperature of the gas made it difficult to determine what caused the leak. Fire crews will check back in on Saturday.
ORIGINAL STORY: Employees were evacuated from a building at the Foster Farms facility in southwest Fresno on Friday due to a high-pressure gas leak.
The Fresno Fire Department was dispatched for a HAZMAT incident at the Foster Farms Belgravia plant just before 10 a.m., according to Fresno Fire Department information officer Jonathan Lopez.
As of 1:30 p.m. Friday, firefighters were still working with facility personal to stop the carbon dioxide leak.
Belgravia Incident Update: Fresno Firefighters are still on scene of a CO2 release at the Foster Farms plant. A Hazmat crew has made a second entry into the area of release and are working to shut it down. The gas does NOT pose a risk to the general public https://t.co/CLzgI4DLGR pic.twitter.com/Y0f88DOmBt
— Fresno Fire PIO (@FresnoFire) December 23, 2022
The CO2 was being released as a white cloud, at high pressure and low temperatures, which made the leak difficult to find. Firefighters said the noise from the leak sounded like a jet engine.
Employees were evacuated from the building but remained on site.
Police isolated the area around the facility, and Lopez said there was no immediate danger.
“Members of the public don’t need to worried.”
Miguel Avendaño Reyes, a farmer at the nearby YoVille Community Garden and Farm, said he arrived with his son at the garden for the day at 11 a.m. when police alerted him to leave the premises.
“I was working and when I looked up I saw a police officer in the street,” Avendaño Reyes told The Bee in Spanish. “He approached me and told me through a megaphone and told me there was gas coming from Foster Farms and that it’s dangerous and that we have to go.”
Avendaño Reyes said the plant always smells, but this smelled weird, “like gas.”
“It looked white like smoke.”
As Avendaño Reyes prepared to leave, he said he saw firefighters start to arrive.
“Me fui rápido,” he said.
“I left quickly.”
A message to Foster Farms was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
