Crews were still on the scene at 2100 Larch Street at 8 a.m. and expected to be there for at least another six to eight hours.
“We’re not going in there anytime soon,” Smith said.
A combination of debris and wind made the fire particularly difficult to fight.
“We brought heavy equipment in because simply we could not get access to the fire,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of debris. Everything is collapsing in...The wind was terrific last night and it pushed the fire all through the building.”
The assistant chief also noted that sawdust “everywhere” in the building likely contributed to the spread of the fire.
Crews did stop the fire from spreading to one section of the building as well as the pallet yard.
Smith said that a year-end inspection at the end of last year found the company to be compliant and the building up to date with code.
Fire crews have determined the area where the fire started, but are still working to find the point of origin and heat source.
With this intense of a fire, Smith said, a lot of fire investigators’ evidence gets destroyed.
We will continue to update this story as more details are available.
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