TRACY — A fire started at a Medline medical equipment warehouse in Tracy, California, around 1 p.m. on Thursday. The incident escalated into a major blaze, prompting the City of Tracy to declare a local state of emergency.

Firefighters encountered sprinkler systems and on-site hydrants that were not functioning. Authorities determined the water system failure originated from the facility's internal components. A fire official found a pump that was pushing little to no water through the facility's sprinklers and hydrants. Firefighters connected to municipal hydrants after the on-site water system failed. Within 30 to 40 minutes of ignition, the building was engulfed in flames. The facility was fully evacuated, and no injuries were reported.

Tracy Fire Chief Randall Bradley said a fire of this size is uncommon. Bradley said. "We had a good, aggressive interior fire attack, and the sprinklers were not operating, so we’ll have to find out what happened to the water supply." He also explained that several factors contributed to the situation. He said. "Things worked against us. Again, water supply issues, low humidity, high winds and high temperatures. It was a little bit of the perfect storm for this fire evolving quickly."

Tracy Deputy Fire Chief Brian Bagley described the difficulty of fighting the blaze. Bagley said. "We did a defensive approach at that point."

An outside contractor tested the facility's sprinkler system in January and reported no issues. Bagley said. "However, when our crews were engaging in the firefight, they did not recognize any fire sprinkler activations at all throughout the entire facility. And they were in there for a solid 10 minutes trying to knock down the fire, and the fire spread laterally from all the high rack pile storage very, very quickly."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will assist in determining the cause of the blaze. Medline released a statement reading, "Product distribution previously supported by the Tracy facility has been reassigned and it is in the process of being deployed to other facilities within our regional network to help maintain service and support customer needs."