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Sawmill Blaze Consumes Equipment

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 20, 2007

Updated: 12/19/2007 09:33 pm

GOWERS CORNER - Crossroads Sawmill, a fixture on State Road 52 since the late 1960s, lost about $500,000 in equipment Wednesday afternoon to a blaze that fire officials blamed on human error.

The fire started when a spark from a second-floor grinding wheel ignited sawdust and dry bark on the bottom level, Pasco County Fire Marshal Larry Whitten said.
Whitten said the building was gutted by flames, but no one was injured.

"It was just human error," he said. "Some of the employees tried to put it out with portable extinguishers. The owner got in a tractor and moved a bunch of logs out of the way so we could get through."
Firefighters were called to the business at 3:26 p.m., records show. The sawmill is just west of U.S. 41.

Wednesday wasn't the first time Whitten had responded to a call at the business.

"There was a fire up here a few years ago," he said. "That was caused by a cigarette. Back then we recommended that that they move some of the interface back and they did. The trees used to be a lot closer."

Virgil Williams, who sold the business to his sons, Lee and Jeff Williams, in the late 1980s, said the destroyed equipment was not insured.

Williams said the business survived yet another fire near the sawmill about 15 years ago. That fire happened after a spark from a welder's torch ignited sawdust, he said.

The mill was shut down for repairs Wednesday when the fire started. As firefighters sprayed water into the building, Williams shook his head.

"That stuff burns real fast," he said.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217.

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