On July 23, the burgeoning cannabis cultivation industry in a small town on California\u2019s Central Coast was rocked by a greenhouse fire that sent flames shooting high into the air and a thick plume of black smoke billowing to the sky.<\/p>\n
The greenhouses belonged to\u00a0Loudpack Farms<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the flagship facility in Greenfield, California\u2019s fast-growing cannabis sector and producer of some of California\u2019s top-rated connoisseur cannabis products. It was hours before the town\u2019s fire department was able to bring it completely under control. The fire departments from the nearby towns of Soledad and King City were also mobilized to the scene.<\/p>\n The blaze apparently started outside one of several greenhouses at the site and rapidly spread, ultimately consuming or damaging at least a dozen.<\/p>\n A huge fire broke out just after 4:20 p.m. at a marijuana growing operation in Greenfield. Several greenhouses are on fire that are used for cultivating cannabis by Greenfield\u2019s largest employer, Loudpack Farms. READ: https:\/\/t.co\/p335hCyuRw<\/a>\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/uPyE3htlGs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 KSBW Action News 8 (@ksbw) July 24, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cThe winds pushed it through the greenhouse structures very, very quickly,\u201d a Greenfield fire department spokesman told local TV outlet\u00a0KSBW<\/a>. A\u00a0Monterey Herald<\/a>\u00a0report indicates all the greenhouses at the facility were destroyed. The facility apparently had no sprinkler system.<\/p>\n Town authorities say the fire is under investigation. KSBW, Monterey Herald and other media reported that the fire broke out at 4:20 p.m., without commenting on the possible significance of this time.<\/p>\n There are no requirements for cultivators to obtain insurance under\u00a0the new proposed permanent cannabis regulations<\/a>\u00a0from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the state department which oversees cannabis cultivation. Only cannabis distribution license-holders\u00a0must obtain insurance<\/a>, and\u00a0the state is working<\/a>\u00a0to build avenues for those companies to get quality insurance policies. It\u2019s unclear if Loudpack Farms had any crop insurance, though it is unlikely they did, given\u00a0the many barriers cannabis companies face<\/a>\u00a0toward getting good insurance.<\/p>\n More than 300 people work at Loudpack Farms, which earlier this year became Greenfield\u2019s largest employer. All employees on site at the time of the blaze were evacuated, and no injuries were reported, according to\u00a0KSBW<\/a>.<\/p>\n Greenfield city councilmember Avelina Torres told KSBW: \u201cMy very first concern was the safety of the people, and I was happy to hear that everyone got out safe. Second thing is loss of jobs, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m concerned about is these people that do have bills to pay, children to raise \u2014 I\u2019m hoping that they can continue working.\u201d<\/p>\n Loudpack said in a statement that the fire will \u201cabsolutely not\u201d affect employment at the facility.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe invest in our people. We will rebuild our facility and no one should feel that their job is at risk due to these unfortunate circumstances,\u201d said the statement e-mailed to\u00a0KSBW.<\/p>\n Loudpack Farms is both the first and largest facility in Greenfield\u2019s burgeoning cannabis industry. In April, the city announced the company had become Greenfield\u2019s single largest employer,\u00a0Monterey County Weekly<\/a>\u00a0reports. The facility is actually located just around the corner from Greenfield City Hall, and is one of 11 cannabis businesses now operating in the town. Municipal officials are betting on cannabis for the town\u2019s economic future, with some $1.7 million in tax revenue from the industry projected for this year.<\/p>\n The blaze comes as fire season is starting in California. Wildfires this week have\u00a0shut down Yosemite National Park<\/a>, and\u00a0closed Highway 299<\/a>\u00a0through the Trinity Alps. But the official map shows that the nearest wildfire to Greenfield is in San Luis Obispo County, some 70 miles to the south. Last year\u2019s fire season took a toll\u00a0on cannabis cultivation in California,\u00a0primarily in Napa and Sonoma counties.<\/a>\u00a0The Greenfield blaze, however, seems unrelated to any wildfires.<\/p>\n Cannabis industry website\u00a0Leafly<\/a>\u00a0notes that Loudpack shared the facility with\u00a0DNA Genetics<\/a>,\u00a0a cannabis seed company founded in the Netherlands over a decade ago. The facility\u2019s especially fragrant varieties\u00a0won it the moniker \u201cTerp Town\u201d \u2014 for the natural chemical terpenes that produce the fragrances. Strains and extracts produced at the facility have won various awards.\u00a0Loudpack\u2019s\u00a0\u201cJack\u201d strain\u00a0scored second place<\/a>\u00a0for best sativa flower in the 2017\u00a0World Cannabis Cup\u00a0in Jamaica. It also\u00a0won first place<\/a>\u00a0for best CBD cartridge in this year\u2019s SoCal Cannabis Cup, held in April in San Bernardino.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0do you think cannabis companies should have access to quality insurance?<\/p>\n The post Police Investigate Cannabis Greenhouse Fire in Salinas Valley, California<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On July 23, the burgeoning cannabis cultivation industry in a small town on California\u2019s Central Coast was rocked by a greenhouse fire that sent flames shooting high into the air and a thick plume of black smoke billowing to the sky. The greenhouses belonged to\u00a0Loudpack Farms\u00a0\u2014 the flagship facility inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,50,988,136,5,5080,2081,385,5081,768,5082,5083,5084],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28097,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28096\/revisions\/28097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Police Investigate Cannabis Greenhouse Fire in Salinas Valley, California<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"