LEXINGTON, N.C.—
A large vacant warehouse that was once a furniture factory burned to the ground Monday morning as every single Lexington firefighter worked to prevent the blaze from spreading to nearby structures.As the first call to the fire department went out around 5 a.m., the glow from the flames lit up the morning sky and could be seen more than five miles away.
For hours, the building at 151 Elk St. -- constructed mostly with wood on the inside -- burned quickly, until there was virtually nothing left. Shortly before noon, the fire spread to the third floor of an adjoining complex that is home to several companies, including Liberty Wholesalers and Tradewinds Furniture.
All of the city's 47 firefighters were called to the warehouse to help battle the fire and prevent it from spreading. A ladder truck from the Thomasville Fire Department also came to assist, as did firefighters from five volunteer departments in Davidson County.
"We had to flow a lot of water, of course," said Lexington Fire Chief Thad Dickerson. "(We've) been working on that all morning to make sure we have water here on the scene have the utilities cut off. (It's) basically a defensive operation on this incident."
A fire official said it was the city's first major fire since 1998.
Robert Allison woke up to a police officer warning him he'd have to evacuate if the flames spread any further.
"(I) looked out the window, because I saw big-ol' flames. Then (there were) two or three explosions, big explosions. Stuff just flying all over the place," he said.
Even though the building was vacant and no one was injured, lifelong resident Kenneth Shillinglaw expressed regret at seeing a piece of the city's history disappear in smoke.
"For years, it put money in this community," he said. "When you see something for so many years, you have to see it gone."
"We pre-plan things of this nature, and we've had several incidents on larger buildings here, so we were kind of prepared for it," said Dickerson. "It can happen any time. And since most of the building's been vacant, anything like that can happen."
Fire investigators have not said what caused the fire.
