ATHENS TOWNSHIP, Penn.-- Officials with Bob's Cycle Shop and Bob's Honda have said they plan on rebuilding after the longtime Valley business' building was destroyed by a fire early Monday morning.
Over 100 firefighters from 16 departments in two states converged on the scene Monday to battle the blaze. Over $1 million worth of damage was caused by the blaze.
The cause of the blaze is undetermined but not suspicious and is under investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal, according to Athens Township Second Assistant Fire Chief Bill Kneebone, Jr.
Kneebone explained that firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 4:28 a.m. and upon arrival discovered heavy smoke coming from all four sides of the main structure.
"It was dispatched as an automatic alarm," he said. "However, they always dispatch us twice. The first set of tones that went off was an automatic alarm. The second set of tones that went off was automatic alarm - PD on scene reporting smoke showing."
The main structure is comprised of three buildings, said Kneebone.
"The first original building on the property has foundation underneath and a basement," he said. "It is a combination of cinderblock and - there's like cinderblock buildings inside cinderblock buildings with one common wood truss roof all the way across all three buildings. There's some wood framing in there where they framed their interior rooms, hardwood floors, a combination of wood beams for the flooring and steel I-beams."
Battling this blaze proved to be "pretty tough" for the firefighters, said Kneebone.
"Right off the start of the fire, we had three three-man crews enter the structure and try to fight the fire at three different points from the interior," he said. "They were in there about 20 minutes and we had to pull them back out and switch over to a defensive mode. Conditions had deteriorated to the point where it wasn't safe to have our guys in there."
From there firefighters utilized an exterior attack in battling the blaze, said Kneebone.
"(We used) master streams, which are large diameter hoses," he said. "We called in three different aerial trucks. We had Athens Borough, Sayre and Towanda's aerials all there flowing water, and the aerial trucks flow thousands of gallons of water."
Firefighters had the fire under control by approximately 9 a.m., said Kneebone.
No one was in the structure at the time firefighters were dispatched to the scene, and no one was injured on scene, said Kneebone.
"We did have one firefighter who got some debris in her eye, and we had EMS flush that out for her," he said.
Excavators from Austin's Excavating of Waverly were brought in to remove some of the debris in order for firefighters to douse the remaining flames, Kneebone said, adding that the fire was completely out by 7 p.m.
"Once the building deteriorated to a certain point, I wouldn't put anybody in there for fear that the floor was going to give way into the basement," he said. "So we called an excavator in and he reached in there and pawed through it, and we wetted it down from there."
Firefighters were able to remove two vehicles out of the car service area and approximately 40 ATVs and motorcycles from the cycle shop's showroom, said Kneebone.
However, the remaining merchandise stock with the showroom - as well as several priceless motorcycles including a 1948 Indian - were all destroyed in the blaze, said Kneebone.
One car within the showroom of Bob's Honda was also totaled, he said.
On the lot all the vehicles were covered with soot as a result of the facility's rubber roof, which was destroyed along with the building, said Kneebone.
"That soot from that roof is on every single vehicle," he said. "It is even on our own personal vehicles - our chief's vehicles, our fire trucks - it is all over."
In addition, the vehicles that were sitting on the lot next to Elmira Street were sitting in water up to their frames, said Kneebone.
The fire resulted in the closure of Elmira Street from just north of the Wal-Mart entrance to Lockhart Street. That portion of the roadway was eventually opened to traffic around 2 p.m.
Kneebone noted that the water supply was not a problem in battling this blaze.
"As far as our company goes, it is very saddening to us," Kneebone said of the destruction of the Bob's Honda and Bob's Cycle Shop facility. "A lot of people don't know this but Bob Chamberlain (who founded the business) himself, when our fire department was organized in 1976, bought us - out of his pocket - our first fire engine."
Assisting the Athens Township Fire Department at the scene were fire departments from Sayre, Athens Borough, South Waverly, Waverly-Barton, Litchfield, Ulster-Sheshequin, Smithfield, North Towanda, Ridgebury, South Creek, Wysox, Lockwood, Chemung and Wellsburg.
Canton provided cover-up services to the Towanda area with their aerial truck; Mansfield was on standby in their station to provide cover-up services to the western Bradford County area; and the Owego Fire Department was on standby in the Valley with an ambulance and their aerial truck, said Kneebone.
Greater Valley Emergency Medical Services and the Valley Rapid Intervention Team also assisted at the scene.
The Sullivan Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross Disaster Action Team, Sharon Lowery, Captain, Jill Deskins, Valley Branch Manager, and Richard Lowery, DAT Member, provided canteen services at the scene. They were later joined by the local Salvation Army and their Elmira Canteen Truck. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army worked together as a team to provide breakfast sandwiches, pizza, subs, soda, doughnuts, coffee, water, and Gatorade. Large donors for this incident are to be commended such as Wal-Mart, Dandy Mini-Mart, McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Domino's, Howie's Pizza and Visions Federal Credit Union. The Salvation Army purchased hoagies from Top's supermarket, and Salvation Army thanks the market for its quick service.
This is the second blaze to have occurred on the lot of Bob's Honda and Bob's Cycle Shop in the past six months. Back in November a fire at a warehouse out back broke out. More than $250,000 in damages was reported back then.
The warehouse has since been rebuilt and was not damaged as a result of Monday's fire, said Kneebone.
Republished with permission of The Morning Times.
