A fire at Emporia Pallets Plus Wednesday night took about eight hours to contain, Battalion Chief Capt. Larry Bess said this morning.
The fire department received the call at about 8:40 p.m. and responders found the fire at the wooden pallet factory, 1303 South Highway 99, burning from the east side of the building to the west. Fire crews from Hartford, Olpe and Americus joined in the effort, Bess said.
No one was inside the factory at the time.
“It was about 5 this morning before we really did get it contained,” Bess said.
Investigation of the fire was continuing this morning, and firefighters were applying water to hot spots. Bess said the amount of wood in the building put it at extra risk.
Crews were able to keep a nearby trailer and propane tank out of harm’s way. A number of pallets were outside the building, some of which were burned.
“It pretty much was a total loss, I’d have to say,” Bess said. “But on the amount, boy that’s gonna be really hard to determine. There was a very high load of wood. Hard to say how much that cost.”
Bess said there’s no preliminary hypothesis on the cause of the fire. He said that because of the hot spots, a building as large as Pallets Plus would probably have to be monitored beyond today.