Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 7, 1994 TAG: 9412070160
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Frank Sale, owner of the building on Lovely Mount Drive near Bethel Elementary School, watched as the firefighters fought to save the larger, cinder block section of the structure after the wooden and metal portion of the structure was destroyed.
Christiansburg Fire Department was assisted by several other New River Valley fire departments in fighting the blaze, which was reported at about 9:15 p.m.
Sale, who had closed the building supply business in 1980, said Monday night that he suspected the fire was deliberately set.
Lt. O.P. Ramsey of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that the department is investigating the fire as an arson based on Sale's assertions, but there is no concrete evidence yet to pinpoint the exact origin or cause of the fire.
Investigators spent much of Tuesday pulling off the remains of the metal building and searching the rubble for clues to the fire's origin.
"It's such a mess out there, it's going to take a while. ...It'll probably be another day or two before we'll begin to have an idea," how the fire was started, Ramsey said.
The business, across the street from Bethel United Methodist Church, was opened in 1963 and was expanded several times, Sale said. Until it closed 17 years later, Sale and his family sold lumber, paint, "everything to build a house," to customers from surrounding neighborhoods and beyond.
"We've always kept something in here," he said. He had several pieces of farm equipment including hay rakes in the portion that was destroyed; he rented out another portion of the building, he said.
"I got a little insurance, I don't know how much," he said.
Christiansburg Fire Chief Jimmy Epperly said it took firefighters about 45 minutes to get the fire under control. The wooden and metal portion of the structure burned quickly. "There wasn't any saving it," Epperly said, so efforts were concentrated on saving the rest of the building, which was mostly cinder block.
Ramsey said about one-third of the roof over the cinder block portion was lost in the fire along with part of a loft area.
Epperly said his department was assisted by Riner, Radford, Newbern and Blacksburg fire crews and the Christiansburg Volunteer Rescue Squad at the scene while members of the Elliston Volunteer Fire Department stood by in Christiansburg to respond to other calls.
There are no fire hydrants near the Sale building and pumpers had to haul water from hydrants on Tyler Avenue near the Best Western Radford Inn.
by CNB