Looking at the video of this fire reminds of a story on that pier. I side story not about this incident but bare with me as a recollect an incident there.
If you look past the fire building, down the pier where all the impound cars are parked, there used to be two other buildings similar to the fire building. In them and around them were either bags of coffee beans or bales of hemp. The bales were left out side during loading and unloading which made them susceptible to spontaneous combustion in the summer.
After responding to a few of these smoky fires which required us to tear apart these 5 x 5 x5 ft bales on hot summer days nobody was happy to be there. Plus the long shore man we’re in no hurry to help since this was hazardous duty pay for them$
L101 had a great Firefighter Buddy Switzer, who took no crap from anyone and after waiting for the long shore man to operate a high low Buddy told the Chief he could do it. Without waiting for a decision he hopped in the high low and proceeded to ‘move’ the bales apart by dropping them in the canal.
After a few went in burning or not with yelling and screaming from the dock manager and others Buddy was relieved of his high low duties and we were told to take up.
Surprisingly we had no more fires on the pier that summer 🤔. Good memories from a long time ago.
