Clark said the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but fire officials walked through the site with the State Fire Marshal officials shortly after the flames were extinguished.
“We were out there (Sunday) with the State Fire Marshall and we do not believe the case is suspicious,” Clark said.
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Clark said he doesn’t believe there are any hot spots left at the property, but he does suspect that there could be a couple of “warm spots.”
“I would imagine there are still some warm spots there. I suspect there are several areas that are trapped by the roof that caved in,” Clark said. “We are just gonna have to let it finish smoldering and let it burn itself out.”
The Springfield News-Sun reached out to BDL Supply, which is owned by Buckeye Diamond Resources, for comment on the fire and was told by a manager that a press release would be sent to the newspaper. The News-Sun is still awaiting the release and will update this story when it is received.
BDL Supply has not been a concern of the department, Clark said, as the department has rarely been dispatched to the pallet factory.
The only major fire that has ever occurred at the property happened in 1991, when the property caught fire and burned to the ground, Clark said.
“As far as EMS runs are concerned, there has never really been any huge fires besides that. They used to sell mulch so occasionally we had to do a couple of small mulch fire runs, but nothing huge,” Clark said.
BDL Supply is one of two pallet yards in Clark County that has caught fire in recent years — the other is Tri-State Pallet, Inc. in Springfield.
Tri-State most recently caught fire on July 10, 2019 at its 1200 Warder St. location. The blaze involved 27 firefighters and took more than an hour to contain. Around 10% of the yard’s estimated 78,000 pallets were destroyed in the blaze, according to a fire report released by the Springfield Fire Division.
Read more on the fire at Tri-State Pallet Inc.: Springfield fire officials had eye on pallet yard long before blaze
The cause of the fire was later marked as undetermined.
Tri-State also caught fire on Jan. 6 2015 — the fire is believed to have been the largest fire in Springfield since 1999 when the Crowell-Collier building caught fire. At the time, the palette warehouse was located at 270 Monroe St.
The fire at 270 Monroe St. required 42 firefighters and 11 fire engines at the scene, plus Box 27 Associates, mutual aid vehicles and personnel and a heavy police presence to close the overpass and other streets.
65: Fire response vehicles who assisted in putting out the fire
20: Different fire departments who responded to the fire
2: Amount of times BDL Supply has caught fire
The Springfield News-Sun provides unmatched coverage of house and business fires in Clark and Champaign County.
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