Published: March 05, 2008 11:26 pm      

Lumber mill fire causes $750G damage

NEW LEXINGTON — Charlie Bowers woke in the wee hours Wednesday to the sound of a fire at the machine shed of his lumber mill.

“There was a lot of booming going on,” he said, hopping off a forklift at a busy work scene Wednesday afternoon. “I thought it was thunder at first.”

Bowers estimated the 3:40 a.m. blaze that consumed the large shed caused $750,000 in damage. No injuries were reported.

The building, which was insured, housed two combines and thousands of dollars’ worth of farming and lumbering equipment in a plot near Bowers’ home where he runs his business, Charles Bowers Lumber Co.

Laborers were back to work as usual later in the day, and Bowers was loading wood between meetings about the blaze.

The structure off Route 281 was engulfed with flames shooting from the roof when firefighters arrived, said Chad Johnson, New Centerville’s second assistant fire chief.

Fire crews from New Centerville, Rockwood, Bakersville and Somerset battled the flames for about 21/2 hours and called for tankers from Confluence, Addison and Sipesville to supply water.

Firefighters have called in a state police fire marshal to determine a cause, but Johnson said he saw no reason to consider the fire suspicious.