Fire claims warehouse of St. Louis company that specializes in cleaning up fire damage

Feb. 18--ROCK HILL -- A "catastrophic" fire rendered a warehouse a total loss Sunday morning in Rock Hill.

The three-alarm blaze claimed a commercial storage facility for Woodard Cleaning and Restoration, just off Manchester Road. The company specializes in restoration from fire, smoke or water damage. The fire was called in shortly before 1 a.m., and reduced the building to ruins that were still smoldering late into the morning.

"There was just too much," said Kevin Halloran, chief of the Rock Hill Fire Department, recounting the initial attack that first responders tried to mount against the flames. "They had a partial collapse right after they backed out."

Despite its proximity to other buildings, the fire was contained to just the one, partially collapsed structure. Officials said no one was hurt in the incident.

The warehouse's owners expressed confidence that the loss of the building and the supplies it contained would not interrupt the company's overall operations or services.

"We'll work through it," said the company's owner and CEO, Justin Woodard, at the scene of fire Sunday. "This is the loss of a building, but it's not going to stop us from helping the St. Louis community."

The company has other facilities in the immediate vicinity. Woodard said that fleets of vehicles and key equipment were not affected.

"It's going to be pretty 'business as usual' for us," he said. "We've got the right insurance for the worst-case scenario, and this isn't even that."

By about 11 a.m., Halloran and crews from multiple fire departments were still working at the scene, with a "couple hot spots" remaining in the wreckage, he said.

Once that work wrapped up, Halloran said attention from the department and from outside agencies would turn to an investigation about the cause of the fire. There was no initial indication of what sparked it, but he said foul play was not suspected. And although he said causes of house fires can typically be identified the same day, he expects this investigation will likely be more complicated and time-consuming.

The site of the fire was directly behind the Trainwreck Saloon, on Manchester. Sitting just yards away from the blaze, it was an eventful -- and restless -- night for the bar's staff, some of whom stayed there overnight, serving coffee and breakfast food to the fire crews.

George Hansford, who serves as president for Trainwreck and has been with the business for 37 years, got to the scene with his wife at around 1 a.m., to see what they could do to help.

"It was catastrophic. It's the biggest fire I've seen close up," he said, pausing for a break almost 10 hours later. "It was so hot in there and spreading so fast."

Besides serving refreshments, he spent the night "doing a lot of pacing" -- worried that the fire would spread next door to the tavern.

"They were afraid the whole wall might fall on the building, too," Hansford said.

The building that houses the bar wouldn't have stood much of a chance, he said.

"This place is all wood. It would've been gone in an hour," he said.

Luckily Hansford's fears did not come to fruition. He expressed "great admiration" and gratitude for the fire crews that worked for hours on end to contain the damage.

"It had to be over 3 million gallons of water they put on that building," said Hansford, based on overnight conversations he had with fire personnel about their rate of water usage. "We didn't dodge a bullet, we dodged a cannonball."

J.B. Forbes of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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