Tracy warehouse fire burns for third day, medical supplies at risk

Smoke from Medline’s giant Tracy distribution center was pushing air on the south side of the city into the unhealthy range, and officials told people sensitive to smoke to stay indoors as firefighters battled the blaze for a third day. Children and people with lung conditions were urged to take precautions, with South San Joaquin County fire officials warning that smoke could drift across the southern San Joaquin Valley. The fire began at the company’s Promontory Parkway site and quickly became more than a warehouse emergency, threatening the flow of medical supplies across the western United States.

ABC7 San Francisco reported that about 1,000 employees were out of work as Medline activated a command center and contingency plan, shifting product to secondary and tertiary distribution centers. The building was described as roughly 1 million square feet, and Tracy Fire Department Chief Brian Bagley said the disruption would affect medical supply deliveries across the western United States. Medline says its network includes more than 50 distribution centers across North America and supports next-day delivery to most U.S. customers, which made the Tracy facility a critical link in the supply chain rather than just another storage site.

Fire officials said the blaze spread quickly after crews encountered low hydrant pressure and a sprinkler system that did not activate, even though the sprinkler system had reportedly been tested and certified in January 2026. OSHA records show a complaint inspection had opened at Medline Industries, LP, 5701 Promontory Parkway, on April 20, 2026, and California labor authorities were also reported to be investigating a complaint filed just days before the fire. That combination of safety questions and infrastructure failures has sharpened attention on how a major industrial site could burn so intensely and keep fouling the air for days.

Hospitals and health systems were tracking the consequences closely. Sutter Health said it was monitoring the situation and did not anticipate broad immediate impacts, while UC Davis Health asked employees to conserve supplies as it assessed the fallout. The site sits inside Tracy’s International Park of Commerce, which Prologis says supports more than 25,000 jobs and generates $13 billion in local economic activity. The fire underscored how a single warehouse blaze can spread from a neighborhood air-quality problem to a regional test of industrial safety and medical supply resilience.