March 18--PINE GROVE -- A fire broke out at a Washington Township business at 10:22 a.m. Monday, the second one the company has suffered in recent years.
The blaze started in a plastic-covered building storing wood chips, shavings and sawdust at Blue Mountain Enterprises, 1246 Deturksville Road. The company produces wood shavings. The trucking company ships logs, poles, paper products, farm supplies and other dry bulk. The wood shavings are used for animal bedding.
"A spark probably got into the shavings somehow and caught them on fire," Carl Stump, assistant fire chief at Friedensburg Fire Company, said Monday.
The fire melted the plastic canvas covering the building, and firefighters were still putting out the smoldering wood shavings at noon. The fire is still under investigation and Stump said the Washington Township fire marshal will be contacted to help determine the cause.
There was a similar fire at Blue Mountain Enterprises in October 2011 that also destroyed a building housing wood chips, shavings and sawdust.
North End Fire Company and Hose, Hook & Ladder Company No. 1, both of Pine Grove, and Summit Station Fire Company and Friedensburg Fire Company assisted at the scene.
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