10:00 PM PST on Monday, January 14, 2008

By SARAH BURGE
The Press-Enterprise

An accidental fire Sunday evening charred a 10,000-square-foot citrus cleaning and packing facility south of Lake Skinner, authorities said.

The blaze, at Lemon Hills Organics near Benton and Warren roads, was reported about 5:30 p.m. and when firefighters arrived the building was in flames, a Riverside County Fire Department news release said.

The owner of the facility, Albert Salazar, said a metal-grinding spark flew off during installation of a new fruit-sorting machine and ignited sponges in another machine. No one realized what had happened until the fire had begun to spread, Salazar said.

The blaze ignited the roof insulation, he said, "and that thing just lit up like a matchbox."

The Fire Department estimated $150,000 in damage in a preliminary report. Salazar said his loss, with all of the building's contents, is probably closer to $500,000.

Salazar said the company, which cleans and packages its own locally grown citrus, had been at that location since 1997. Work was being done Sunday to finish a machinery upgrade, Salazar said.



http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_sfire15.317e680.html

I used to fish at lake Skinner while living in Yucca Valley.
Too bad.