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Officials call Chateau Mill & Supply a total loss
By Kelly Hafen and Aaron Falk ~ HJ staff writers
PRESTON, Idaho - Black smoke filled the air and nearby apartments had to
be evacuated as fire destroyed a downtown cabinet factory Sunday night.
The blaze that engulfed Chateau Mill & Supply, 40 W. Oneida, started
around 6:30 p.m., officials said, and crews from Cache and Franklin
counties fought the flames late into the night.
"Right now they're starting to get ahead of it," Cache County Fire
District Chief Gary Roberts said around 9:30 p.m.
Franklin County Fire Marshall Scott Martin said the building was old and
had been grandfathered in under current safety codes without a sprinkler
system. "If it had been sprinklered, we wouldn't have been into this
problem," he said.
No civilian injuries were reported, but Roberts said one valley
firefighter was hurt. The extent of the injury was unknown, he said.
The cause of the fire was also unknown, Martin said. An investigation
would be launched in the morning, he said, as crews were unable to gain
entrance to the building during the night. The roof of the building
collapsed around 8:30 p.m. and officials are calling it a total loss.
Apartments east of the fire were evacuated, Franklin County Sheriff Don
Beckstead said, and firefighters broke out the windows of a nearby
building.
But Martin said crews were able to limit fire damage to the single
structure. He did, however, say that nearby buildings suffered some
water damage. Crews "held it down so it didn't burn down the whole
block," he said.
Martin said firefighters used similar techniques to fight the flames
that took the OP Skaggs building a year ago. Beckstead said the building
contained paints and lacquers that could have fueled the flames and been
dangerous for firefighters.
"All we saw was just flames," Jon Bartholomew, the shop's owner, told KUTV News.
"There's a lot of wood inside there. In a cabinet shop we use lacquer
for finishing, but we only keep a limited amount of that on hand at a
time."
Bartholomew said the shop, which has been in business for 33 years, will
"do what we can" to honor pending contracts with customers.
Again the cold caused minor problems for firefighters, Martin said.
"We had a little problem with water pressure; one hydrant froze," he
said. "We had some minor slips and falls."
Six engines from Cache County and three engines from Franklin County
were used to knock down the fire, Martin said. |
