A massive fire on Wednesday night in Montpelier, Vermont, destroyed a local lumberyard, officials say.
The fire was first reported at 6:14 p.m. at the RK Miles lumberyard, formerly Allen Lumber, on Stone Cutters Way. Multiple streets were shut down in the area as crews fought the flames.
No injuries were reported.
Montpelier Mayor Jack McCullough said in a Facebook post on Wednesday night that the lumberyard was destroyed, but the actual store was not seriously damaged. Firefighters were also able to save the neighboring Clothespin Factory and Hunger Mountain Co-op.
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"I just got back from the scene. It appears that the main building, where the store is, is not damaged—I even heard one of the firefighters say that all the windows are intact," McCullough said. "The sheds and all the inventory look like a total loss. I was talking to the store manager and Joe Miles is on his way up from Manchester. It looks like the other buildings—Clar Construction, the clothespin factory, the Co-op—are okay."
A fire engine was also destroyed by the fire after the wind changed directions.
"We will be here all night continuing to extinguish what fire is left. There is not a lot left. Most of it collapsed down," Montpelier Fire Chief Robert Gowans told WPTZ.
Montpelier already suffered severe damage in the July floods, and recently had a fire at the Mad Taco restaurant.
"This is just terrible. We've been trying to recover from the flood, and we made some real good progress downtown. We had a fire last week at Mad Taco, and now this. This is just really disheartening," McCullough told WPTZ.
The Vermont Department of Public Safety's Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit was out at the fire scene on Thursday morning investigating the cause of the blaze.
They said in a statement Thursday afternoon that their initial investigation has uncovered no evidence to indicate the fire is suspicious in nature. The origin of the fire has not yet been determined and they said their investigation is ongoing.
