Fire and Outages
Blaze, severe storm cause power losses
The Inter-Mountain photo by Joe Blankenship The America’s Mattress store on the Beverly Five-Lane burned down early Wednesday morning. The Elkins Fire Department worked at the scene through Wednesday afternoon.
The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinnie A Mon Power employee works on an electric line near the still-smoking America’s Mattress store Wednesday afternoon after the fire caused several homes to lose power.
The Inter-Mountain photo by Joe Blankenship The America’s Mattress store on the Beverly Five-Lane burned down early Wednesday morning. The Elkins Fire Department worked at the scene through Wednesday afternoon.
The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinnie A Mon Power employee works on an electric line near the still-smoking America’s Mattress store Wednesday afternoon after the fire caused several homes to lose power.
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ELKINS -- The America's Mattress store on the Beverly Five-Lane burned down early Wednesday morning, with firefighters remaining on the scene well into the afternoon.
Elkins Fire Department Chief Steve Himes told The Inter-Mountain the department received a call about the fire around 12:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. When they arrived the building was "heavily involved in fire." No injuries were reported from the blaze.
The Elkins Fire Department operated on the scene for around four and half hours, Himes said, before having to head back to get several trucks back in service.
Himes said the department was traveling back and forth to the scene throughout the day.
"The only hydrant we had at our disposal actually broke, so it had to get shut down," Himes told The Inter-Mountain around 2 p.m. on Wednesday. "(Department members) just left to make about their fifth trip."
The Elkins Fire Department fought the fire "defensively," as Himes explained, using the department's aerial apparatus and portable master streams.
The building suffered what Himes called a "catastrophic interior collapse," making it unsafe for department members to be in what is left of the building.
"The second floor fell to the basement," Himes said. "The roof fell on top of that. It's just going to be hard to get to. It's going to take some heavy equipment probably to finish it off."
The cause of the fire is being investigated by the State Fire Marshal's Office, Himes said.
"Due to the large volume of fire damage and the potential high dollar loss, it falls under their criteria, and we called them to conduct the investigation," Himes said.
The fire, according to Mon Power, had left fewer than 20 of their customers without electricity for part of the day. Multiple power outages have been reported throughout the area after a severe thunderstorm late Tuesday night.
Around 933 customers in the areas of Mill Creek, Huttonsville and Adolph were without power Wednesday, while 556 customers in the areas of Mill Creek, Huttonsville and Elkwater also suffered a major outage.
George Ward Elementary School and Tygarts Valley Middle/High School (TVMHS) were closed Wednesday due to the power outages. Randolph County Schools announced the closures on social media around 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. All other schools in the county remained open.
"Due to the power outage, George Ward and TVMHS will be closed on Wednesday, April 30," Randolph County Schools said in the post. "All other schools are on a regular schedule."
Issues with the storm and outages were also reported around the state, with Brooke County closing all public schools in the county for Wednesday "due to power outages and damage caused by the storms," according to its social media page.