BUCKHANNON – No one was injured in a structure fire that broke out inside a North Spring Street warehouse Sunday afternoon.
However, a local business lost almost everything when the largest section of the warehouse, located at 23 N. Spring St. in the old day reporting center just across the railroad tracks from the Whistle Stop Bar and Grill, caught fire. Riley and Macie Queen, owners of Moon Flower Hemp, posted a message on social media Sunday afternoon stating that “the building containing all of our products and everything Moon Flower, caught fire and burned.”
Career firefighter with the Buckhannon Fire Department John Brugnoli said the fire department believes the largest room of the warehouse caught fire just before 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
No one was inside at the time.
“It was not suspicious,” Brugnoli said. “The building was locked up tight, and right now, we think it was possibly an electrical malfunction of some sort. The state fire marshal will be investigating because of the dollar loss that was involved.”
Brugnoli said the building is divvied up into three sections, and the fire damage primarily occurred in the middle part of the building where Moon Flower Hemp kept their products and packaging.
“The fire damage itself was contained to the large room where they keep their [materials] – everything in there was a complete loss,” Brugnoli said. “The rest of the building had some smoke damage, and there is water damage. Luckily, whoever called did it pretty quickly because we were able to stop it before it burned through the studs in the walls or ceilings.”
The BFD had the fire under control in about five minutes and stayed on scene for approximately an hour and 15 minutes to ensure smoke was cleared out of the facility.
The Warren District Volunteer Fire Department and the Washington District Volunteer Fire Company also assisted at the scene.
In a tearful Facebook video, Riley Queen of Moon Flower asked customers to be patient as Moon Flower regains its footing over the next several weeks.
“We ask for your patience throughout the next couple days if we are a little slow in responding to questions and for our website [with] things being down,” she posted. “We are going to pick back up as soon as possible and ask for some good energy to be sent our way.”
