TROY TOWNSHIP — Firefighters remained on the scene of a commercial structure fire Saturday afternoon, more than eight hours after arriving.
No injuries have been reported.
Lt. Brianna Casey of the Johnsville Fire Department confirmed that fire personnel responded to a blaze on Ross Road in Morrow County and were still fighting the fire as of 3 p.m.
“We’ve been here since approximately 6:45 this morning. We’re still out here working,” Casey said. “It’s continued building.”
Casey said the fire was contained to an approximately 20,000 square-foot storage building.
“It was mostly an electrical scrap store building. It had multiple things as far as tractors, bikes, a bunch of scrap, copper,” she said.
“We don’t know what started the fire. We just know that it spread very quickly through the roof and throughout the building.”
At the height of the blaze, there were approximately nine fire departments at the scene, including every Morrow County Fire Department, as well as the Bellville-Jefferson Township Fire Department, Springfield Township Fire Department and an additional department from Knox County.
Casey said the Johnsville Fire Department and the Ohio State Fire Marshal will conduct a joint investigation into the cause of the fire.
Neighbors said they noticed the fire early, with billowing black smoke visible from a mile away.
“You could tell it was hard to manage,” said Andrea Gray, who lives about a quarter mile from the fire. “It was billowing — huge plumes. I don’t know what was stored at the building, but the smoke was black as night.”
All videos courtesy of Jason Balok.
