Millions of alcohol wipes, left over from the coronavirus pandemic, go up in flames in Southern California

A fire in a pile of millions of anti-bacterial cloths burned for hours in Ontario on Wednesday, Jan. 31, the Ontario Fire Department said.

The tower of surplus wipes left over from the COVID-19 pandemic caught fire outside a logistics warehouse at 1155 S. Auto Center Drive around 10:30 a.m., Battalion Chief Scotland Roeber said.

The flames found an ally in the materials, Roeber explained: The cylindrical containers, numbering more than 7 million, each containing 80 wipes, were highly flammable because of the oil in the plastic; then there was the alcohol in the wipes and the cloth wipes themselves.

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For good measure, there was a little bit of wind, but the 30 firefighters there prevented the flames from spreading to the building.

City public works crews brought in heavy machinery to pry apart the pile, which Roeber estimated as 200 feet long, 100 feet wide and 30 feet high.

“This was like mulch, but with ‘Handi Wipes,’” Roeber said.

No one was reported injured, Roeber said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. There was no obvious heat source that could have ignited the wipes, Roeber said.