Fire rips through lumberyard
A large fire ripped through a building at a Clay Township lumberyard late Sunday afternoon. No one was injured.
Flames shot high in the sky, and thick black smoke could be seen for miles from the fire that started about 4 p.m. at Minick Tree Service and Slabs at Route 308 and Mahood Road.
The business was closed, and a cause was not immediately known. Next-door neighbor Chuck Sarver reported that the electricity at his house and at least two other nearby homes “blinked on and off” momentarily about the time it appeared the fire erupted.
“It looked like it started in the front corner” of the Quonset hut-style building, Sarver said.
Kerm Minick, who owns the business, noted the electrical box was in that corner of the building, which was filled with cut lumber.
“What are you going to do?” Minick said as he watched the fire tear through the building.
Minick was in Franklin Township participating in a game for a church softball league that he runs when he got a cell phone call from Sarver.
“I told him his building was on fire,” Sarver said.
After briefly processing the call, Minick said he drove to the lumberyard he has been operating for about 15 years. He started his formal business there about a year ago.
“It was all on fire,” he said of the building.
He did what he could as more and more fire crews arrived. He got on board a high lift and tried to salvage what he could, moving precariously close to the fire.“I tried to get other lumber piles out of the way,” he said.“He was right in the middle of it doing whatever he could,” said wife Sally Minick. “That's Kerm.”He managed to rescue some of the lumber until the heat got too much to bear.“Oh yeah,” he said. “It was hot.”It was too hot for him to make it into the building, which was crammed with lumber cut for tables, bars, benches and the like.Three kilns used to dry the wood and a large wood plane was among the equipment lost in the fire.“There was a lot of stuff in there,” Minick said.The first-arriving crews deployed deck guns and dragged hose lines to the fire. The fire was too intense to make it into the building.“By the time we got there, it was raging,” said Dan Bunyan, chief of the West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department.Water used in the battle came from tankers. A tanker shuttle also was used.The intensive heat from the fire and the air temperatures in the 80s combined to tax firefighters.“It was tough,” Bunyan admitted. “We called in Bruin's rehab (unit) so we could keep the guys rotating.”The rehabilitation unit provided a cool environment for crews to recuperate and replenish themselves during the fire fight.About 50 firefighters from at least nine department joined in the battle.Sarver said he heard three or four explosions early on. Minick speculated that was from cans of oil and empty gas cans.A similar building in back of the one on fire appeared to be undamaged, Bunyan said. Another building that is being made into a lumber showcase closer to the road was well away from the fire and was spared.
Minick said he had no insurance. He estimated the damage was at least $75,000.The bulk of the blaze was contained around 6 p.m., Bunyan said, but crews still kept trying to make sure the last of the lingering fire was out. All that remained of the building was the scorched metal frame and the burned out heaps of equipment.Bunyan said he left a message with the state police fire marshal, but it was not immediately known if the fire marshal would be investigating.A member of the Victory Family Church in Cranberry Township, Minick said his faith would see him though the aftermath of the fire.“Absolutely,” he said. “Faith is essential, especially in times like these.”He and his wife gave thanks that no one was hurt.Friends stopped by throughout the fire to console the couple and offer any help they needed.“He's a family man and he goes to church every Sunday,” Sarver said of Minick. “They are a wonderful family. Kerm is a hard worker. He's always down there.”Except on Sundays. That's for church and church-related activities.“He knows what's important,” wife Sally said. “That's what keeps him on an even keel.”She noted that he will celebrate his 55th birthday on Thursday.
