Arrington
Nelson County, Virginia
By Tommy Stafford
We first broke the story to you about a major fire at Turman Lumber Company early Wednesday morning in this post. Over a dozen agencies responded to the scene to help get the blaze under control. This was the second fire there in just under two years.
Wednesday evening Lovingston Volunteer Fire Department released additional information about the fire. Below is their verbatim press release from LVFD Assistant Chief Derek Kidd:
At approximately 10:30 pm on Tuesday night, Lovingston Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched along with Piney River Volunteer Fire Department, Gladstone Volunteer Fire Rescue and Roseland Rescue for a report Structure Fire in a commercial building at Turman Tye River. A Nelson County Sheriffs Office deputy arrived on the scene moments after the initial dispatch and reported a single building with heavy smoke and fire showing. With that report, personnel requested additional assistance from Faber Volunteer Fire Department, Rockfish Valley Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Wintergreen Fire Rescue, Amherst County Public Safety and North Garden Volunteer Fire Company.
Personnel determined that the fire was actively burning in a lumber separation and storage facility and quickly began an aggressive defensive operation to keep the fire contained to the building of origin. Due to recent rains, a water source was not immediately available on site and a Water Shuttle Operation was established to provide the needed water from fire hydrants in the Colleen Area approximately three miles away. Once the fire was cooled, fire personnel used a piece of heavy equipment to remove the siding of the building to be able to attack the heavy fire in the middle part of the building. Personnel also used that heavy equipment to remove and spread the lumber from the building to allow it to be doused with water and foam.
Additional resources were called in from Wintergreen Fire Rescue, Dillwyn Volunteer Fire Department, and Augusta County Fire Rescue to provide relief for personnel that operated on scene overnight. Approximately 100 firefighters and 25 pieces of fire and rescue equipment were present on scene. The fire was marked under control and units cleared the fire scene at approximately 10:00am. All units were back in service in the respective stations at 1:30pm.
Three non-life threatening firefighter injuries were reported, no civilians were injured during the operation.
Agencies On Scene included:
Lovingston VFD
Piney River VFD
Faber VFD
Gladstone VFR
Rockfish Valley VFR
Wintergreen FR
Amherst VFD
Monelison VFD
Pedlar VFD
Amherst County Public Safety
Dillwyn VFD
Augusta County FR
Roseland Rescue Squad
Nelson County Public Safety
