A Montpelier fire engine was destroyed Wednesday night as firefighters were battling a massive fire at a lumberyard.
“Bad news is that the City lost a fire engine which got caught in a wind change and burned up. Good news is that we have no reported injuries so far,” Montpelier officials said on its Facebook page.
John Jose told The Montpelier Bridge that he saw black smoke coming from the rear of the Co-op as he was about to enter the store.
“I walked around and saw the flames shooting out,” he said adding that he notified an employee and called 9-1-1.
“It was surreal. I went in and people were still shopping,” he noted.
The wind blew it away from the co-op store but toward other buildings at the lumberyard.
Montpelier firefighters were on the scene and were quickly joined by dozens of mutual aid responders from throughout central Vermont.
All of the warehouses at the rk Miles lumberyard were destroyed. But, firefighters managed to stop the fire from spreading.
"It looks like the other buildings—Clar Construction, the clothespin factory, the Co-op—are okay," city officials said.
The cause of the fire was still unknown Thursday morning.
