I was driving around on Friday afternoon with my camera when I got distracted by a plume of smoke nearby. Tonight is dex night and I’m already bored, so you get to hear all about it. Here’s the plume:
![](https://preprod.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/blog_anaheim_fire_1.jpg)
Let’s go see what it is! Great gouts of smoke were coming from a building behind the Coca-Cola bottling plant on Grove St. in Orange:
![](https://preprod.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/blog_anaheim_fire_2.jpg)
Lots of other people were there taking pictures too:
![](https://preprod.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/blog_anaheim_fire_3.jpg)
I drove out to Batavia St. to get a better look at the firefighting. This had been going on for over an hour by the time I got there:
![](https://preprod.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/blog_anaheim_fire_4.jpg)
Here’s a closeup of the firefighter at the top of one of the ladders. Not bad for my little camera:
![](https://preprod.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/blog_anaheim_fire_5.jpg)
And here’s the artsy shot, because why not?
![](https://preprod.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/blog_anaheim_fire_6.jpg)
According to the Orange Fire Department, the fire was at Lake Management Inc., which, ironically, is exactly what it sounds like: LMI is a company that manages lakes, ponds, water features, retention basins, and so forth. No word yet on how the fire started.