Firefighters urge caution after fire destroys 100 cars at Nob Hill Auto Wrecking

YAKIMA, Wash. — Firefighters are still working to put out a fire that sparked Wednesday night and destroyed about 100 cars at Nob Hill Auto Wrecking and acres of trees at Robertson Landing on the Yakima Greenway.

Crews responded overnight to multiple 911 calls about smoke and flames behind the business, which is located at 2609 W. Birchfield Rd. and found that the fire had already burned through more than an acre of land.

Yakima Fire Deputy Chief DJ Goldsmith said the fire spread to the back lot of the business and started numerous cars on fire, growing to cover about 20 acres.

Goldsmith said at one point, the fire did jump the Yakima River and burned through a small area on the East Valley side of the river, prompting evacuation notices to go out to people in the area, including residents of Camp Hope.

No structures were lost and no one was injured, but about 100 cars were destroyed in the fire. Goldsmith said the fire also caused significant financial damages for the business owners, the landowners and the government due to fire suppression costs.

“These fires cost the taxpayers a couple hundred thousand dollars to fight due to overtime staffing, and then not only that, the rehabilitation of land,” Goldsmith said. “Being so close to the water’s edge, that means folks are going to have to get in there and do some conservation work.”

Goldsmiths said the fires will continue to burn for a few days because it’s not safe for their firefighters to get close. He said they have heavy machinery on scene and people are evaluating trees to bring them down so they can get into the wooded area safely.

“The biggest thing is we are on scene; please do not call 911. That distracts from true emergencies,” Goldsmith said.

At this point, Goldsmith said they don’t know at this point what caused this particular fire, but they did have a second fire south of that location that burned about two acres off of Valley Mall Boulevard that was caused by a campfire.

The fires drew in a large number of resources, from Kittitas County all the way down to the Lower Valley, including the Washington Department of Natural Resources and the Bureau of Land Management.

However, Goldsmith said while several more fires sparked across the region Thursday and pulled some of their resources away, they’re still working to address all the hotspots.

Goldsmith said recent fires have had different causes, but many have been caused by humans. He said campfires or any kind of open flame is illegal at this time because of the county-wide burn ban.

“It’s not worth it; you’re putting everybody’s life at risk, to include the firefighters and again, that’s something we can prevent and help all of us out," Goldsmith said.

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