Berry Brothers Lumber

6-18-2008

At 7:32 p.m. Jefferson County Dispatch received a wireless 911 call reporting a structure fire the Berry Brothers Lumber Company on US Route 11 just south of  the village of Adams.  County Fire Investigator JimWratten, who lives across the road, confirmed a working fire in the wood processing area.  Berry Bros. Lumber converted a few years ago from a working sawmill to a wood processing plant which converts wood and cardboard into bedding for farm animals and a heavy equipment repair facility.   Adams Chief’s 1 (Stephen Rexford), requested mutual aid from Lorraine, Adams Center, Mannsville Manor and Belleville Fire Depts.  Adams Engine 2 laid a 1,000 ft 5” supply line from the last fire hydrant in the Village and began a deck gun operation to prevent the fire from spreading to the portion of the building containing the 650 kva diesel generator which supplies power to the facility.  Due to poor water flow from the dead end hydrant additional mutual aid was requested from Smithville, Town of Watertown and Ellisburg Depts.  Additional mutual aid was then requested from Rodman, Henderson, Sandy Creek, Lacona, and Pulaski as fill sites and tanker shuttles were established on both the north and south sides of the fire.  South Jefferson and Town of Watertown Ambulances treated one firefighter at the scene for minor injuries and transported one firefighter to Samaritan Medical Center for minor injuries. 

The main building containing the wood processing facility and heavy equipment repair facility was a wide open structure of heavy timber frame construction with steel siding and a steel roof with light weight wooden trusses.  While the building is a total loss early defensive deployment of large caliber streams directly into both the wood processing area and equipment repair area saved many of the tools and large pieces of equipment.  Some of this equipment is back in operation after replacing hydraulic hoses.  Others should be repaired within a few days and it is expected that the company will be back in business soon.  A wood frame building where the processed animal bedding was stored adjacent to the plant was totally consumed by the fire.