Hay fire believed to be cause of stink in Bakersfield
BY JASON KOTOWSKI, Californian staff writer jkotowski@bakersfield.com
Rotten eggs? Natural gas? Even, is it possible, marijuana?
No, the stench that pervaded Bakersfield Wednesday morning was apparently nothing more than the smell of burning hay. At least, that's the only explanation air regulators and firefighters had.
Kern County Fire Department spokesman Sean Collins said there was a hay fire on East Panama Lane and South Fairfax Road on Monday. It's possible that smoke from the fire was slowly spreading through Bakersfield, he said.
Firefighters were sent back to the site Wednesday morning to check it out, and the owner of the property was taking care of it, Collins said.
Brenda Turner, outreach and communications representative for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, said they had received numerous calls regarding the smell. She said Wednesday morning that an inspector had been at the dairy where the fire happened and the hay was continuing to smolder.
Turner said the dairy owner apparently put some wet manure on the hay. She said there are no health risks she's aware of, but if people are concerned the best thing to do is stay indoors.
Local residents mostly said the stink reminded them of marijuana.
Justin Faulkenberry, 20, said he was driving downtown around noon and was convinced he was smelling pot. He was surprised there was such a strong smell of what he was sure was marijuana because there's a strong police presence downtown.
Bakersfield College student Nicole Lee, 20, was in a BC parking lot when she got a strong whiff of what she thought was marijuana.
"A skunk doesn't even smell that strong," Lee said.
David Balderas said the stench was so strong he thought a marijuana field must be burning.
There was one man, however, who said he didn't notice a marijuana smell. Louis Orchard thought he smelled sewage, but he said that's nothing new.
"It always smells like a sewer downtown," he said.
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