MADISON â A hardware store warehouse hit by a lumber fire Thursday night reopened the next morning, partially with the help of competing businesses which came forth with offers of assistance.
âWeâve had some of our competitors offer us material, offer us vehicles, offer us labor,â said store owner Brent Burger.
The cause of a fire that destroyed a lumber storage building at the Main Street store, Campbellâs True Value Building Supply, was a faulty engine block heater in a flatbed truck, Burger said Friday.
âThe fire marshals were here and did their inspection,â Burger said. âThey were complimentary of all the processes we had in place. We had surveillance and security so we could see what happened. We could see the truck had been parked properly and got plugged in properly. All that is good news. All our employees here were doing everything right.â
The fire was first reported at around 5:15 p.m. Thursday as a vehicle fire by employees who were closing the lumber yard for the day. Five area fire departments responded to the blaze, which spread from the vehicle and ended up destroying a lumber storage building containing equipment and kiln dried wood, said Burger.
The destroyed building is one of several at the large lumber yard, and firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the building supply store and other parts of the lumber yard, Burger said.
On Friday, Campbellâs was open for business as usual. The wood that was lost represented about 20 percent of their inventory of kiln dried wood.
Burger said he estimates the damages at around $300,000 so far, but said the Madison community â and competing stores â have reached out to Campbellâs to help the company recover.
âItâs really been fantastic that people are calling and saying, âYou do so much for the community. We want to help you,'â said Burger. âWe donât do things for the community to get paid back, but itâs nice that people recognize this is a team sport, and just because youâre competitors doesnât mean you shouldnât help each other.â
Rachel Ohm â 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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