On March 8, 1959 at 11:45 a.m. a passerby spotted flames coming from the East Fayetteville Elevator Company and alerted the Fayetteville Volunteer Fire Company. A fire of undetermined origin destroyed a large three-story frame warehouse and elevator building and its contents including 300 bushels of wheat, 400 bushels of shelled corn, two tons of miscellaneous feed, a ton of bran, a ton of alfalfa meal, 800 pounds of chopped oats, five tons of feed concentrates and much more. Many building were scorched and damaged from the radiant heat. A lack of adequate water hampered firefighting efforts. A small cistern was soon drained and additional water had to be hauled by tank trucks and pumped in a single line from a distance of nearly 3,000 feet. Bumper to bumper traffic of people trying to get a better look at the fire also hampered firemen.
Firemen manning 19 pieces of apparatus from eight companies battled the blaze for hours. Five firemen were injured and taken to Chambersburg Hospital all but one was released and another 13 were treated at the scene for minor injuries. The most seriously injured was Richard Weagley of the Franklin Fire Company; Weagley suffered burns to the face, eyes, neck and left hand when he was enveloped in a puff of flames while operating a hose stream into the building. One of the firemen that was transported was William “Tom” Murray of the Vigilant Hose Company, he fell into a pit and suffered minor burns. Other Shippensburg firemen injured and treated on the scene were; D.B. Reasner, cut hand; Tom Reed, eye injury; Guy Flory, cut finger and Merv Fogelsanger, stepped on a nail. Damages were estimated at $75,000. The Vigilant Hose and West End Fire and Rescue Company assisted at the scene.
This was the second major fire to occur at this location. In 1920 a Gulf oil truck collided with a train taking the life of the truck driver and burning the elevator to the ground.
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