By City News Service Apr 1, 2021 COMPTON (CNS) - What began as a tree fire was pushed by gusting winds into an industrial pallet yard and warehouse complex in Compton today, creating a plume of thick black smoke visible from as far as Orange County and prompting evacuations as embers ignited blazes at homes in an adjacent neighborhood. A passerby initially reported a fire burning in a tree near Alameda Street and East Rosecrans Avenue around 4:30 p.m., fire officials said. With the Southland in the tail end of a Santa Ana wind event, gusty conditions quickly pushed the flames into the industrial yard, sparking an inferno as flames chewed through flammable materials stacked in the yard and inside metal-roof structures on the property.