MONROE TOWNSHIP —
No dollar amount has been set on the loss resulting from a fire that destroyed a pallet and crate factory Tuesday morning.
Jason Coy, Monroe Township Volunteer Fire Department chief, said he will meet with the owner of Hiddenview Pallet, 3099 State Route 7, today to review the equipment that was lost in the blaze that took down a production building and spread to an ice house. Coy said the fire also spread to a dust collection building, but firefighters were able to keep that building from becoming fully involved.
Coy said that while the cause of the fire has not been determined, it appears to have started in the west end of the building where a diesel engine was running.
A wind from the west pushed the flames into the building, which was quickly engulfed.
The building, about 7,000 square feet, had a steel roof and sides, and thus held the fire. Lumber being used in production and sawdust fueled the fire.
Coy said there were two explosions in the building, but he said the tank that held the diesel fuel was not involved. He suspects that a 100-pound propane cylinder accounted for one of the explosions firefighters and neighbors heard shortly after the blaze was called in.
Monroe Township was the first to respond to the fire, which was called in at 10:37 a.m.
More mutual assistance was called out as the need for water and manpower became evident. Conneaut, Andover, Dorset, Kingsville and Albion, Pa., provided manpower and tankers to shuttle water from a pond behind the Monroe Fire Department’s headquarters.
Coy estimated that 125,000 gallons of water were shuttled to the scene during the four hours that departments battled the fire and worked to protect surrounding buildings and materials.
He said there were probably at least 50 firefighters on the scene at the peak of the operation. Temperatures in the 90s made the task especially dangerous.
Coy, who had just gotten off work at 6 a.m., was the only firefighter to suffer dehydration that was serious enough to require hospital treatment.
“I just dehydrated,” he said. “I was the unfortunate one.”
The pallet business, owned by an Amish man, was not insured. But Coy predicted that it will be rebuilt and the five employees won’t be idle for long.
“Being in the Amish community, it will not be very long before they will be back,” he said.
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