Arcata Fire is the consumer brand of ArcataX, a Humboldt County extraction company working out of West End Road in Arcata, California. It makes live resin and solventless live rosin from sungrown flower frozen minutes after harvest. It keeps collecting hardware, too: silver at the 2026 California Cannabis Awards for its Sangria #10 T1 Live Rosin All-in-One.
Two high school friends and a Humboldt extraction license
Case Mandel and Lizandro Salazar were best friends in high school before they were business partners. Mandel had already launched Cannadips and worked with early hydrocarbon extraction equipment. Salazar handled facility design and operations. Cannatech Today reported in November 2021 that ArcataX became Humboldt County's first legally operational botanical extraction facility after Prop 64.
The partners started in crude oil manufacturing. When crude turned into a commodity, they pivoted to live resin. Salazar sums up the thinking as "fire in, fire out": the starting flower sets the ceiling for the extract. By mid-2021, ArcataX said it was the primary supplier for five of California's top ten cannabis brands. It also ran as a bulk live resin wholesaler and co-packer.
ArcataX launched Arcata Fire as its flagship consumer brand on July 2, 2021, with Salazar as president. The first run covered 12 varieties of dry-farmed 100% live resin one-gram ceramic cartridges and 14 live resin concentrates in four textures. The company self-distributed through Lightwork Distributors. It reached more than 50 California retailers at launch.
Minus 80 degrees, minutes after the cut
Speed is the whole pitch. Partner farms hand-harvest the flower and move it into -80°C coolers minutes after cutting. The company admits that freezing on site took real work to solve. In 2021 ArcataX said its process preserved flower within 10 minutes of the cut and allowed same-day extraction. That put product on shelves one to two months after harvest instead of the usual three to six.
The flower comes from Humboldt sungrown farms, many of them off grid and regenerative by the company's description. Rosin runs use only water, ice, heat and pressure, with strain-specific micron ranges from 73 to 159 µ for separating trichome heads. Arcata Fire says every product is assembled by hand.
Live resin, live rosin and Wildfire
The hydrocarbon side covers live resin cartridges, including OG Sauce carts and Hi-Potency carts, plus Brilliant Diamonds jars, badder and sauce. A Sungrown Concentrates range and Wildfire Vapes fill out the resin catalog.
Solventless is where the brand pushes hardest. The range covers live rosin jars, 510 rosin carts and live rosin syrup all-in-ones. In September 2026, Farmhouse Delivery in Petaluma listed Arcata Fire's Halle Berry Tier 1 live rosin, and Juva in Redwood City carried Cold Cure live rosin. Flower Co offered Oreoz and Rainbow Beltz live rosin plus a Grape Gas live rosin disposable.
An Emerald Cup habit that dates to 2019
Arcata Fire's awards page starts at the 2019 Emerald Cup, with second in BHO concentrate for Strawnana and fourth in live rosin for Hibiscus. At the 2021 Emerald Cup, a Runtz live resin cart took first place. The 2022 results added second for a Raspberry live resin cart, third for a Key Lime Pie solventless cart and fourth for Day Day BHO.
The 2023 Emerald Cup, held in May, was the big haul. Weedmaps' winners list credited Arcata Fire with five placings, every one a farm collaboration. It won live resin cartridge with Humboldt Trees and solventless cartridge with Humboldt 36 Farms' Banana Punch. Royalbudline's Zkittlez rosin syrup all-in-one took second, and Humboldt 36 Farms added two thirds, for Orange Tree and an infused solventless pre-roll.
Farmers Cup 2023 added two more firsts: Orange Apricot in solvent dabs and GMO Cookies in rosin concentrate.
Golden Bears with Ridgeline Farms
The collaboration that travels furthest is with Ridgeline Farms. Their 100% Live Rosin Syrup Lantz All-In-One won the Golden Bear and a gold medal for solventless cartridges at the 2024 California State Fair Cannabis Awards. The pairing still sells as a limited one-gram rosin all-in-one on Arcata Fire's site.
The state fair kept calling back. Budist and SC Labs judged the fifth California Cannabis Awards in 2026, and in July Arcata Fire took silver in solventless cartridges with the Sangria #10 T1 Live Rosin All-in-One.
From West End Road to California shelves
The operation runs as the Arcata Fire House of Extracts on West End Road, under California manufacturing license CDPH-10002992 and distribution license C11-0000051-LIC. The company says it started its own distribution company to deliver across the state, and its Fire Locator maps licensed retailers.
In September 2026, Weedmaps showed Arcata Fire at more than 20 California dispensaries, including The Cake House, Coastal Cannabis, Green Mart, High Seas and several Embarc locations. That menu runs from Wildfire disposables and live resin carts to Papaya Bomb and Grape Pie live rosin and the Palm-Pro battery.
For adults 21 and over.