A July 17 fire damaged a Macon County business and has left its employees temporarily out of work. An investigation into the cause of the fire continues.
A call came into the Macon County 911 center at 6:05 a.m. last Wednesday with the caller reporting flames were coming out of the top of Liberty Wood Products on Iotla Church Road.
Burningtown-Iotla Fire & Rescue was the lead department on the call. Upon arrival crews found the office area on the southeast end of the building fully engulfed. “Heavy damage could be seen with floor collapse in the office area,” said fire chief Josh Blanton. With the assistance of seven other fire departments, he said they “made a quick attack on the fire and kept it contained to the office area with minimal spread.”
Burningtown-Iotla Fire Sgt. Michael Yacks said, “The rapid response from our county fire departments prevented this blaze from spreading to the woodworking/manufacturing areas of the building, avoiding a much greater catastrophe.”
Franklin Fire and Rescue Chief Ben Ormond said flames were about 100 feet in the air when they arrived on scene and began efforts to help control the fire and keep it contained so it did not expand to the warehouse where all the lumber and sawdust was.
“We got there just in time,” Ormond said. He estimated about 10% of the building was damaged by the fire, however there was a lot of smoke and water damage throughout the facility.
Liberty Wood Products General Manager Gary Henson said Monday they are unable to work in the building and he did not know when they would be able to resume work. “We’re kind of at a standstill,” he said.
Henson said there is a lot of heat damage in the building, and they are waiting on the insurance people. “We haven’t really been able to get in there and assess it.” He said there will probably be extensive electrical work that needs to be done in addition to repairing the building.
Henson said Liberty Wood Products employees 11 people. “We’re all go-getters,” he said. “We don’t like sitting here twiddling our thumbs.”
Yacks said Liberty Wood Products is the only industrial manufacturing facility in their fire district and they have established a pre-plan for the facility including periodic walk-thru training sessions so firefighters are familiar with the building.
Chief Blanton said, “Myself and another member of the department did a detailed pre-plan on the facility a little over a year ago, and if it had not been for that and updated info on the building such as closest draft site/water point to the structure we would have possibly had a hard time keeping adequate water supply to our trucks. We try to get out there at least once a year to walk through the facility and see if anything has changed inside and out.”
As part of their pre-plan, Yacks said part of their crew immediately established a draft site at the creek near Iotla Church Road and Bennett Road for water supply. He said they are fortunate the water supply is near the building. “Tankers were able to quickly refill and shuttle water to keep suppression efforts active.”
The Franklin fire chief said the training they do throughout the year is beneficial and in a case like this they apply the basic fundamentals on a larger scale.
He said the fire required a lot of water and that is why they needed the support of all the other volunteer fire departments throughout the county. Eight departments were dispatched in addition to Macon County Fire Services, Macon County Sheriff’s Office, EMS, N.C. Highway Patrol and the State Bureau of Investigation.
Fire chiefs Blanton and Ormond commended the departments on their cooperation. “All departments worked diligently and vigorously together as one unit to contain the blaze,” Blanton said.
Ormond said, “It was a great team effort by everyone. We came together as one team and accomplished the mission.”
Henson was also complimentary of the emergency response to his business. “Everybody was excellent,” he said.
“We’re just thankful no lives were lost, and no one was injured,” Yacks said. The building was unoccupied at the time of the fire.
The 911 call came from a school system employee on her way to Iotla Valley Elementary School. As a safety precaution, the school bus in the area bussing kids to the summer program was rerouted through Olive Hill Road.
While firefighters were on the scene, a BOLO (be on the lookout) was issued at 6:50 a.m. for a stolen Grand Caravan belonging to Liberty Wood Products. It was also reported an employee had been fired the previous day.
Franklin Police Officer Matt Bingham found the stolen vehicle shortly after 7 a.m. parked behind the First United Methodist Church on Harrison Avenue. No one was in the care.
Fire Marshal Jimmy Teem said due to some circumstances surrounding the fire, the investigation was turned over to the Macon County Sheriff’s Office and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation.
MCSO Lead Detective Robbie Younce said, “There is an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Macon County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation. This is all the information that we can release at this time, due to the ongoing investigation.”