Lumber Company has fourth fire since 2004

NOBLE COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) – A fire destroyed a building at a Noble County lumber yard early Tuesday morning. 

Photos: Frick Lumber Company Fire

Fire crews were called to a fire at Frick Lumber Company just before midnight on Monday.

Fire crews spent several hours early Tuesday morning battling a large fire at Frick Lumber Company, Inc.

Every fire department in Noble County responded to help fight the fire. A tower truck from Kendallville and three departments from outside the county were also called to help.

Firefighters were able to keep the flames from reaching other buildings and several propane tanks nearby.

Jim Abbs, Public Information Officer for Orange Township in Rome City, said the building was a complete lost, making it difficult to determine what happened.

“The building completely burned down which really makes it difficult for us to do any investigation,” said Abbs.

Ford Frick, Sr. owns the lumber company.  He said it would be easy for a fire to spread in that building.

“It’s kiln dry lumber and most of the moisture has been taken out of the lumber,” said Frick. “Down to five or six percent.  You can almost start a fire with a match, it’s that easy."

The fire was still burning a little around noon when crews left the scene.

“The fire no longer posed a hazard of catching any of the remaining buildings on fire, or firing up to such a degree that it presented a risk to the individuals there,” said Abbs.  “Essentially, if you put that out, someone will have to clean it up.  Someone will have to come in and move in and a lot of times we just allow to burn it down because it’s actually easier for the property owner to get that off , less of a cost to them also."

A savings Frick would welcome. He said he lost thousands of dollars’ worth of materials alone.

“It was the grading station, where he plane our lumber and store our lumber for shipments,” said Frick. “In fact, we had four or five semi-loads of lumber ready to go out in the next two weeks or so."

This is the fourth fire at the lumber yard since 2004.  Frick said the last two fires where in a boiler room on the grounds. The first one, was from a small refrigerator that malfunctioned in the main saw mill building.

Frick said he plans to rebuild, just like he did after the previous fires.  However, the fire isn’t stopping him from producing lumber.

"We're grading lumber in the two hard buildings," he said.  "Hopefully we're sawing before the day's over.  We got about 20 guys here that depend on work, and we're going to try to do it. It just makes it inconvenient for a while."

WANE received multiple Report !t photos from viewers on the fire that were used in the photo gallery and on air. Remember, if you see news, Report !t!