A fire at a medical marijuana cultivation facility in Jefferson over the summer has sparked a debate over the state's differing regulations for medical and recreational marijuana operations.
When Jefferson firefighters arrived at the scene of the fire in August, they initially saw smoke and flames emerging from what appeared to be an older, nondescript warehouse. It wasn't until they entered the building that they realized it was being used to grow marijuana—a discovery that significantly changed the firefighting strategy.
"That just changes everything," Chief Darian Walker of Jefferson Fire & Rescue said, emphasizing that the presence of chemicals and other hazards common in grow facilities added significant risk. "That's our first one. We always talk about how it's not if it happens, it's when it happens and it's obviously not the first one in the state."
To protect his team, Walker quickly ordered all firefighters out of the building. What made the incident particularly concerning, he said, was that the department and the town had no prior knowledge of the grow operation's existence or the changes that had been made inside the building.
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