Thursday October 26, 2006

LEBANON, Pa. – A fire at the Lebanon Valley Business Park in South Lebanon Township is still burning in some spots today. 

More than 150 firefighters from four different counties were called in Wednesday to fight the massive blaze, which started around 9 a.m. Officials said the fire is one of the largest structure fires in county history.

There was concern that the roof could collapse on firefighters. They were cleared from the scene overnight and heavy equipment was brought in to bring down weakened parts of the building. Then, some firefighters headed back in to take care of hotspots and try to figure out what started the blaze.

About 50 firefighters were on the scene this morning.

“The biggest challenge — basically rotating manpower, getting enough guys who are fresh and able to do work. Then, waiting for a demolition team to do their job. It’s a slow process. It’s a lot of down time ? before we can do our job,” said Cornwall Fire Chief Andrew Ventura.

The burned building houses five businesses. Officials think the fire started in a business that stores plastic lawn furniture. One fire officials said about 30 percent of the building was destroyed.

“It’s depressing cause we’re friends. There was only five businesses in here, so everybody knew each other, helped each other out,” said Steve Spohn, of Spohn Performance, one of the businesses at the park. “Pretty much everybody else that was in here lost everything, or just about everything.”

Spohn said fire doors that he and his employees closed just before the height of the fire probably saved his business.

News 8’s Barbara Barr spoke to one of the owners of the business park, Joe Christensen. Christensen said that things are up in the air right now, but he plans to save as much of the building as he can. He also said he has a commitment from the tenants that they will stay. One of the businesses could be up and operating with generators as soon as Friday.

Hazmat teams are still on the scene. They said they have not had any issues with air quality, but they plan to monitor it until the fire is out.