Suspicious Blaze Destroys Building at Nunda Lumber

NUNDA – Flames towered over the Nunda Lumber store early Saturday morning, sparking an immediate response from several Livingston County fire departments.

Emergency responders say that by the time they arrived at approximately 5:40a.m., a large storage building was completely engulfed in flame. According to store employees, the building housed rental materials, chlorine, cedar shingles, rolled roofing, insulation board, and plumbing supplies.

“The fire started in a back corner,” said Scott Pierce, an employee at Nunda Lumber, “and it just went. Insurance does cover most of it, but yeah it’s hard.”

According to 13WHAM news, Dana Russell, owner of Nunda Lumber indicated that there was little material in the building that could start such a destructive fire on its own. Russell said that there was no electricity to the area, no power lines, and no gas line.

Livingston County Sheriff Thomas Dougherty reports that the fire is being considered “suspicious in nature.”

The back corner of the destroyed storage building is indeed easily accessible from South State Street and the driveway to a neighboring house, which was also damaged by the flames.

Despite major damage to stored supplies and the property, no one was injured and the main store at Nunda Lumber remains intact, open and busy. A steady stream of customers browsed the products inside on Monday, and the phone was ringing every few minutes.

The nearby house was also damaged, as well as a pickup truck in its driveway. Both were protected by investigators’ yellow tape.

Fire Departments that responded to the scene were Nunda, Dansville, Mount Morris, Short Tract, Castile, Leicester and
West Sparta. Livingston County Emergency Management Fire Coordinators Niedermaier, McGory, Gehrig and Pearson were on scene to  investigate alongside Sheriff’S Office personnel.