Fire at Business on South End Overnight

Many area firefighters spent the night at a fire scene on the south end of Effingham.

City firefighters were called at 10:19pm to Effingham Environmental Solutions at 2301 South Banker. The business builds pallets, but also grinds up broken pallets to make mulch and provides other uses for items that otherwise might not be usable.

Effingham Fire Chief Joe Holomy said the fire was well underway when firefighters reached the scene. The fire was judged under control between 1:30am and 2am. Holomy said the fire was through the roof of the building that suffered the most damage when firefighters arrived. No damage estimate has been completed. The property is owned by Lee Kaufman.

(ABOVE TWO PHOTOS COURTESY OF EFFINGHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT)

One building was destroyed, a building to the east had minor damage; a building to the west, which was empty, had some scorching.

A portion of South Banker was closed for a couple of hours as firefighters had to run hose as far east as Hoffman Drive for water.

The fire was extensive enough that firefighters went to a second alarm. Fire companies on scene included Watson, Teutopolis, Montrose, Shumway, Vandalia, Wade Township, Beecher City Tri-County, Altamont, Edgewood Bi-County, Stewardson, Olney, Brownstown, St. Elmo and Ramsey. Jasper County EMS and Abbott EMS were on scene, Red Cross set up a canteen for firefighters and Effingham City EMA was on scene.

The last firefighters cleared the scene between 4:30am and 5am today.

(THE FIRE SCENE ABOUT 5:30AM TODAY)

No one was injured. 

The fire has continued to flare up throughout the day Thursday. Firefighters cleared the scene of the last of those three rekindles just after 4:30pm.

While firefighters were on scene on South Banker, another call was received at 2:57am to Effingham Medical Center on West Temple where a furnace motor seized up, causing smoke in the building but no other damage. Units from Brownstown and Ramsey that were staffing the Effingham stations assisted one Effingham unit at that call. Firefighters were there about 45 minutes.