Gilmore Auction owners look to rebuild after massive Rostraver fire

Aug. 31--The fire marshal spent Friday sifting through the remains of Gilmore Auction Galleries as members of the family began to take stock of what happened a day before, when fire destroyed their Rostraver building.

"We really haven't talked about it much, but it's a family business and both my boys are in it," said owner Lee Gilmore.

Gilmore, her husband James, her two sons and her 1-year-old granddaughter were in the Martin Road building when the fire began shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday.

"My son turned off the lights and walked into the main building, and I was getting ready to scrub the kitchen floor," she said. "My husband said, 'I smell smoke,' and we turned around and saw the flames."

Both of Gilmore's sons grabbed fire extinguishers, "but it was just engulfed by then. So we got everybody out."

The auction gallery marked its 101st anniversary this year.

Joseph Gilmore Sr. started the auction and appraisal firm started in 1917 in Sharpsburg. It relocated to Route 30 East in McKeesport in the 1950s, and finally moved to Rostraver in 1968.

"This has been in our family for four generations," Gilmore said. "I have a little granddaughter, and she'll be the fifth."

The family has insurance on the building and its contents, and Gilmore said she couldn't give enough thanks for the crews from five local fire companies that worked to put out the blaze.

"We're just thankful it didn't happen in the middle of an auction room full of people," Gilmore said. "We'd have never gotten them all out. Our heartfelt thanks to all the firefighters. I'm so happy none of them got hurt -- it was so hot and they were there pulling walls down."

Gilmore said the family will sit down at some point and begin looking to the future.

"We'll probably rebuild and start over, but it depends on how much energy we have left," she said.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, [email protected] or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.

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