By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Early Sunday morning, January 25, the Grayson Fire Department responded to a reported structure fire on Three Crosses Drive in Grayson, explained Grayson Assistant Fire Chief Mike Harper.
“We received a call about 6:30 that morning about a possible large fire with smoke in the area,” Harper said.
When firefighters responded, they discovered it to be a commercial fire, and a large one at that.
“When we responded, we ended up having to call out pretty much every fire department in Carter County,” Harper explained.
Mutual aid is common practice in our area, Harper said. It allows the network of coverage to be spread not only for the current emergency, but also for any other emergencies that might occur while the current emergency is being dealt with.
“These things don’t usually happen one at a time,” Harper pointed out. “And in a lot of cases other fire departments answering mutual aid might be on standby in case of another fire or emergency.”
The commercial business in question was Riverside Plumbing, housed in a metal sided structure that was approximately 7800 square feet. The call had come in, Harper said, from an employee of the state garage who had been busy plowing roads for snow removal. The building, fortunately, was empty and no one was injured, Harper said. At this time, the cause of the fire is unknown, but it may have started in the rear of the structure in a small garage area.
The wood frame structure with metal sides and a metal roof took some time to extinguish, Harper said.
“The structure fell in on itself, and the metal prevents us from getting the water to the hot spots,” he explained.
Harper said the cold weather that changed to rain was a further impediment.
“It was a tough call, but there was a lot of help from mutual aid departments that showed up.”
The entire call, he estimated, was between four and five hours.
The hot spots, Harper said, proved to be challenging. A few of these hot spots reignited after the blaze had been extinguished and had to be dealt with.
“But that (the hot spots) was to be expected with all of that metal,” Harper said. “Without having large pieces of equipment to get that metal out of there, it was hard to get the water back into all those spots.”
The building was set on a concrete pad and was not near enough to pose a threat to other structures, Harper said.
“We are grateful for such a good response, especially since the roads were in such horrible condition,” Harper said. “It was a great amount of support. And if it wasn’t for everyone working together, we would have been out there a lot longer in the wind, the snow, and the ice.”
“We hate that the owner lost his business,” Harper said. “But we are really lucky that no one was hurt, and we are thankful for that.”
The fire did not damage any other structures, which Harper said was fortunate as well. And Harper said they were able to save some of the office area so perhaps their computers and other electronics can be salvaged.
The mutual aid departments that responded to assist Grayson Fire Department on the call included Olive Hill Fire-Rescue, Cannonsburg Fire Department, Norton Branch Fire Rescue, Webbville Volunteer Fire Department, Grahn Fire Department, Little Sandy Fire Department, Oldtown Fire Department, East Fork Fire Department, and Hitchins Volunteer Fire Department.
Harper said there were also support agencies who responded with invaluable help as well. Those agencies included Carter Co. Emergency Management, Carter County 911, Carter County EMS, the Grayson Police Department, and the Carter County Sheriff’s Office.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
