By Nathan Mayberg
WARWICK — An all-night fire Thursday that destroyed three buildings and an attached office of a lumber warehouse in Warwick has been ruled accidental, Orange County Fire Coordinator Vini Tankasali said.
The cause of the fire was determined to be an electrical short in the engine compartment of a tractor trailer cab parked inside the warehouse.
Tankasali said the tractor trailer was not running at the time of the incident.
The investigation was handled by the Orange County Fire Investigation Unit and state Office of Fire Prevention and Control with assistance from the Westchester County Police K-9 Unit and Warwick Police Department.
The Warwick Fire Department was alerted to the fire at Mid-State Lumber on Kings Highway at about 5 p.m. on Thursday by an automatic alarm, Warwick Fire Chief Jason Brasier said.
In less than a minute, one of the department's members was on the scene and found three buildings and an attached office building "fully involved" in a fire, Brasier said.
The warehouse was filled with hundreds of stacks of lumber. There was enough lumber, Brasier said, to build numerous houses.
There were also several propane operated forklifts and pickup trucks inside. The vehicles were consumed by fire.
On Friday, Brasier said the cause was "undetermined," Brasier said. "Everything is under investigation."
A person answering the phones for Mid-State Lumber at its Branchburg, N.J., office, said the company had "no comment" on the fire.
The blaze was brought under control by about 2 a.m. Friday morning, though firefighters continued "mopping up," attending to hot spots and moving two-by-fours and plywood away from the scene of the fire until about noon, Brasier said.
Tankasali said heavy winds and the amount of combustible material in the warehouse, including stacks of wood, contributed to the quick spread of the fire.
An excavation crew was brought in on Friday to assist in the clearing of the materials away from the scene of the fire.
As of noon, Brasier was still at the scene since the night before, overseeing the cleanup.
"I haven't been to bed yet," he said.
Two firefighters from the Warwick Fire Department suffered minor injuries.
One firefighter injured his hand and was taken to St. Anthony Community Hospital where he was treated and released. Another department member cut his hand and was treated on the scene.
An estimated 30 departments responded from around Orange County, as well as Rockland County and New Jersey, Brasier said.