Story by Jim Philp
Photos by Kim McCown
Lumberton Volunteer Fire and Rescue Services

The Alarm sounded for Mutual Aid at approximately 6:30 pm on August 18, 2002.

Shortly thereafter, Lumberton Volunteer Fire and Rescue Services Units were in route to the call to assist their neighboring city and members of the Silsbee VFD.

Under the Command of Fire Chief Dennis Gifford, the Lumberton units would engage the fire on the East and North sides.

Engine 2 responded under the direction of the Department's Fire Marshal, Jim Philp.

The fire had gained a good hold on the building, used now as a Craft Mall, prior to fire department arrival.

Firefighters had to deal with a large fire load, electrical lines down and exposures.

The East and North walls of the mall suffered structural separation midway through the incident and allowed the fire to extend past the structure of origin to the exposure to the North.

The Lumberton Firefighters quickly extinguished this new fire.

The second floor collapsed and hampered efforts to get to the seat of the ensuing fires below. Control time was gained a few hours after the initial call.

Lumberton Fire and Rescue brought 18 firefighters to the scene and several pieces of apparatus. There were no injuries reported.

The cause of the fire was under investigation by the Silsbee Fire Marshal.