Flames engulf DatePac greenhouse facility
YUMA, Ariz. — When firefighters from the Rural Metro Fire Department responded to a report of a commercial fire on Friday afternoon, they found a greenhouse half-consumed by flames and the fire spreading to surrounding areas.
The fire was reported at approximately 2:40 p.m. at a facility owned by DatePac, a company specializing in the distribution of Medjool dates, located in the area of West County 11th Street and South Somerton Avenue.
Firefighters quickly deployed hose lines to combat the blaze, which was exacerbated by strong winds carrying burning embers.
“These embers ignited additional fires in nearby pallets of cardboard,” Rural Metro reported.
Despite the challenging conditions, firefighters worked diligently for several hours to contain the blaze.
The Yuma Fire Department, Marine Corps Air Station Fire Rescue, MCAS Crash Fire Rescue, Somerton Fire Department and the Yuma Proving Ground Fire Department all provided mutual aid in battling the blaze.
Firefighters remained on scene to address hot spots and ensure the area was secure. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
Rural Metro Fire Department thanked the assisting agencies for their “prompt and effective response,” as well as the community for their support and cooperation during the incident.
The Yuma Sun reached out to DatePac for comment, but no one was available to respond on Saturday.
According to Yuma Sun archives, DatePac grades, processes and packages more than 600 million dates and ships them around the world to 35 countries every year.
The local megaregion that stretches across Yuma, Somerton, San Luis, San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexicali, Imperial, Coachella, Mecca and Indio has plentiful date palm trees on expansive parcels of land.
Yuma County is the epicenter, with more than 7,000 acres of date palm trees around the local area and into California and Mexico.
Established in 2002, DatePac became one of the leading grower-owned packing companies by consolidating the packing of Medjool dates for the Bard Valley Medjool growers. Its facilities are strategically located to put the processing as close to the source as possible.
The company has two facilities for packing and processing. The first location in Yuma houses the grading operations, consumer packaging and retail operations.
The 5-acre campus in Somerton holds the majority of freezers, about 150,000 square feet of freezer space that holds up to 250 million pounds of dates. The facility ships out about 2-3 million pounds every month, according to a 2020 Yuma Sun story.
The facilities are equipped with the most advanced date processing technology available, allowing Datepac to efficiently sort, grade, process and package over 600 million individual dates annually.
It employs close to 2,000 people in the packing house and 4,000 people who work on the farms. During the peak season, the company hires up to 1,500 people to help harvest the fruit.
The facilities use sun drying and 28 controlled environment drying rooms to ensure food safety and strict product quality. Drying helps ripen the fruit.