Updates regarding structure fire at Hoskins Lumber Company

On Friday, January 16 at 7:53 pm, Washington County emergency responders received a dispatch call requesting the assistance of the Salem Fire Department and the Franklin Volunteer Fire Department at Hoskins Lumber Company located at 6155 E SR-56, Salem.

Crews on scene at Hoskins Lumber Company

According to the dispatch call, there may have been some kind of explosion involved, but that is not confirmed at this time.

“Some kind of building is on fire,” stated the initial dispatch call. “The caller can see flames and said they heard a small explosion, and the road is very smokey.”

Approximately 10 minutes after the initial dispatch, Salem and Franklin departments requested additional assistance from Monroe, Campbellsburg, and Gibson Volunteer Fire Departments.

“I believe we used approximately 35,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire,” said Salem Fire Chief Mark Day. “We had five departments involved, but the whole thing is still under investigation. I had heard that it hasn’t been in operation for three years, and I’ve heard it hasn’t been in operation for eight months. The bottom line is, it wasn’t in operation, but they definitely still had a lot of equipment in there. I think there were two front loaders, a forklift, a couple of vehicles, and the track system where they would haul logs up and down the saw. So, they still had quite a bit of equipment in there… I’ve got a good idea as to how the fire started, but we don’t have anything certain yet. The Fire Marshal was there to investigate it. Until he comes up with something, we probably aren’t going to have [any more information].”

Day went on to say that the equipment in the building ended up being a total loss, and he speculated that the entire building is going to be a total loss as well. He also mentioned that Temple & Temple Excavating and Paving assisted by lending an excavator during the initial fire.

“We do know that there have been people squatting out there,” added Assistant Chief Max Gamble. “There’s a camper out front that folks have been living in, and I’ve heard that people have migrated into the building itself. However, there were no fatalities or injuries in this incident.”

Gamble then stated that they have had to return to the scene four different times due to flare-ups. All four occasions happened on January 18, two days after the initial incident.

At this time, no further information is available, but updates will be provided as information is released.