Abandoned colliery building burns in third suspicious fire since last Thursday
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Shenandoah Fire Chief Rick Examitas awaits apparatus as a colliery building burns behind Boyer's Food Markets on March 10, 2023.
SHENANDOAH – A long-abandoned building, the last remnant of a colliery complex on the west end, burned in the third suspicious fire in about a week
Firefighters were called to the area of Boyer’s Food Markets on West Centre Street just after 5pm Friday for a reported fire.
Flames and smoke could be seen across the west end as a building behind the supermarket, a former maintenance building for the Rosa Breaker and West Shenandoah Colliery, was engulfed in flames.
A Shenandoah Streets Department backhoe had to clear a path into the complex for fire apparatus to access the building.
The building had been abandoned for decades and was the site of a trash fire in 2017, among other small fires over the years.
Shenandoah firefighters were clear of the scene by 6:40pm. No injuries were reported.
Friday’s fire comes just over a week after Shenandoah Fire Chief Rick Examitas said someone intentionally set a home on South Grant Street aflame. Another arson fire burned a duplex in Turkey Run on Tuesday.
Another arson fire burned a home on West Arlington Street in late December.
Authorities continue to investigate all four fires, and ask residents to be alert for suspicious activity. Residents are asked to report suspicious activity and squatters in vacant homes to local police.
Anyone with information on any of the recent fires should call the fire marshal of the State Police at Frackville at 570-874-5300 or the Schuylkill County Communications Center at 570-462-1991.
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