Firefighters used a coordinated tanker shuttle after a partial roof collapse forced an exterior attack at the Rockcastle County Road Department facility

By Christopher Leach
Lexington Herald-Leader

Firefighters worked nearly seven hours to extinguish a fire Sunday afternoon at the Rockcastle County Road Department’s maintenance garage, according to the Mount Vernon Fire Department.

Responding firefighters saw white smoke coming from the garage, on South Wilderness Road, when they arrived a little after 3:30 p.m. and immediately called for backup.

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In all, it took about 67,000 gallons of water to put out the fire, according to the fire department. Firefighters initially tried to extinguish the flames from inside the garage, but a partial roof collapse forced firefighters to fight the fire from outside.

“A water supply consisting of a double dump tank drafting set up allowed four tankers to run a continuous shuttle operation and dump simultaneously,” the Mount Vernon Fire Department, one of several that responded to the blaze, wrote in a Facebook post.

Firefighters reentered the garage and doused flames from inside once the fire was under control, according to the Brodhead Fire Department. It took nearly seven hours for the fire to be fully extinguished, according to the Mount Vernon Fire Department.

“Once the fire was placed under control firefighters worked jointly to transition back into interior operations and conducted extensive overhaul operations to extinguish remaining hot spots,” the Brodhead Fire Department wrote in a Facebook post.

The garage suffered major structural damage. The Mount Vernon Fire Department said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Rockcastle County Judge-Executive Howell Holbrook Jr . said the state fire marshal wrapped up its on-site investigation Monday and will issue a report about what happened in about 10 days. Officials haven’t made any ruling about what caused the fire, but investigators are looking at the water heater as a possible source.

There were two dump trucks in the garage, and at least one is a total loss, Howell said.

Officials have yet to survey the damage in the garage. Howell said the insurance company is planning to evaluate the damage Tuesday, and officials won’t be able to access the garage until that investigation is complete.

The road department will use a temporary garage on Sayre School Road until the garage on South Wilderness Road is rebuilt.

One firefighter was taken to Rockcastle Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the fire department.

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