EMLENTON — The state police fire marshal is investigating a Thursday morning blaze in the borough that caused moderate damage to a Main Street lumber business.

No one was at McNany Lumber when the fire broke out around 7:20 a.m. and no one was injured, according to authorities. A cause and damage estimate were not immediately available.

“It appeared to have started on the first floor in the office area,” said Barry Louise, assistant chief of the Emlenton Volunteer Fire Department.

Trooper Jeff Cross, deputy state fire marshal, said investigators will be on the scene Friday to determine the cause and origin of the fire.

A dozen fire departments, including four from Butler County, were called to the scene.

The business is owned by Gary Fisher and has a hardware department as well as the lumber yard. A neighbor of the business reported the fire after seeing flames coming from the office.

Fire officials said flames were coming out of the window by the time the call ended.

A school bus driver picking up children also reported the blaze.

The fire was just a block and a half from the Emlenton fire station on the 300 block of Main Street.

“We could see flames coming out from the station,” Louise said.

Debe Southworth, who lives across the street from the lumber store, was home when she heard the fire call on her police scanner.

“When I heard 'McNany Lumber,' I flew from the back of the house to the front,” she said, “I looked and the flames were just shooting out the front window where the offices are.”

Two neighbors tried to do what they could before firefighters arrived, but the flames proved too much.

“They got garden hoses and tried to put it out,” Southworth said. “But the fire was going. It was going.”

An Emlenton crew was there quickly, and before long at least 25 volunteer firefighters from four counties converged on the two-story building constructed of cement block siding with a brick facade in front. Southworth said fire trucks lined Main Street.

“We hit it from the outside,” Louise said, “and a few minutes later we made an interior attack.”

Officials said the fire was contained in about 15 minutes.

Mary Rhoads, a receptionist at a nearby dental office, told the Butler Eagle that the flames were out by 8 a.m.

Fire officials reported that the first-floor office sustained the bulk of the damage, including filing cabinets and papers.

Flames also extended into the second floor of the building where a shop area is located and caused damage to the building's roof.

“The damage upstairs is mainly heat and water,” Louise said.

Louise believed there has been a lumber business at the site since the 1950s.

Authorities said Fisher bought the business from the McNany family several years ago. Before that, it was Graham Lumber Co.

Assisting Emlenton firefighters was the Chicora Volunteer Fire Department, which was called out for its ladder truck.

A Butler County 911 dispatcher said the Eau Claire and Bruin volunteer fire departments were called to assist with manpower and the North Washington Volunteer Fire Department was sent with a tanker.

Other assisting firefighters were from Clintonville, Seneca, Rockdale and Kennerdell in Venango County; Knox and St. Petersburg in Clarion County; and Parker in Armstrong County.