Stockton Posts Cease & Desist Operations Notices at 6 City Pallet Operations
The City of Stockton acted on the morning of August 21, 2019 to close six local pallet yards. According to a statement from Richard Edwards, Stockton Fire Marshal, “the pallet operations pose a significant threat to public safety, due to the volume of wooden pallets and how the pallets are stored.”
Edwards explained that the City of Stockton requires pallet yards to store idle pallets within 150 feet of a water supply and develop a site plan that identifies pallet storage areas, all fire hydrant locations (on-street and on-property), and fire access roads. "The business owners ordered to stop operations today have received repeated education, information, instructions, inspections and violation notices, and all have failed to make corrections and submit plans to operate safely," he said.
There are 15 pallet companies within Stockton. Six of them have failed to meet compliance requirements, according to information.
These businesses include:
AA Universal Pallets – 1621 Navy Dr.
California Pallets – 235 W. Scotts Ave.
Central Pallets – 1881 E. Market St.
G. Pallets – 1717 Sanguinetti Ln.
New Star Pallets – 2150 E. Fremont St.
Pallet Guy – 1030 N. Union St.
Since January of 2019, the City has assigned a Special Inspector in the Fire Prevention Bureau to specifically address pallet yards, working with partners in code enforcement to ensure consistency between inspections.
“The goal is initially to educate our businesses to what those codes are, how to interpret those codes and how to apply them correctly,” Edwards stated. “Beginning in June of this year, we also gave each pallet operator a formal letter stating what the requirements were for their operations.”
The letter specifically addressed items such as hydrants for fire suppression capabilities. All pallet yards are required to store their pallets within 150 feet of a fire hydrant within the city of Stockton. Additionally, all pallets need to be stored within 150 feet of an access road. “That's an improved all-weather surface through either concrete or asphalt so that we can actually get our fire apparatus to those pallets when they're burning,” he added. The letter instructed pallet companies to provide documentation back to the fire department within 30 days.
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AUGUST 2019