Firefighters from three departments fought a massive fire late Tuesday night and well into Wednesday morning behind the vacant Mid-City Paint & Glass store on Highway 51 in Summit.
Summit Volunteer Fire Chief Stan McMorris said his department, along with firefighters from McComb and Friendship, responded around 9 p.m.
He said old lumber storage bins surrounding the building and two vehicles that were being stored behind the building caught fire.
“There was a lot of lumber stacked in there and had to be pulled out almost piece by piece,” McMorris said. “There was a lot of tin that had fallen on top of the it. A lot of work to remove debris to get to fire.”
He said the fire was “all around the building,” which hasn’t been occupied in more than a decade.
“It was on the south side of the building and the rear side of the building but not in the building itself,” McMorris said.
Neither the business nor an adjacent and abandoned home caught fire, he said, adding that firefighters also worked hard to protect neighboring houses.
“No main facilities burned, we saved all of that,” he said. “... There were 22 Summit firefighters on scene and help from McComb and Friendship. They were fighting three different fire areas. They were protecting the homes off of Wilbur Lane, protecting homes on Sid Nash (Road) and fighting fire at Mid-City. It took a lot of manpower and a lot of water just to control the fire.”
The cause of the fire is unknown.
Summit police shut down part of Highway 51 and diverted traffic around the fire.
“There was a supply line coming from the fire plug to the fire truck on the east side of 51 going across of highway. There were also a lot of tank trucks bringing water in and out to the fire,” McMorris said..
McMorris said firefighters cleared the scene at 4:10 a.m. Wednesday.
