BREAKING: Fire Destroys Wilkinson County Public Works Transit Building

MCINTYRE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Fire units from all over Wilkinson County and surrounding counties, came out to battle a blaze Monday night that destroyed the county’s public works transit building.

“We have every fire unit from Wilkinson County on the scene and we also have mutual aid from Jones County and two trucks from Baldwin County,” said Assistant Fire Chief Ricky Schneider, McIntyre Fire Department.

Around 11, a motorist called into the sheriff’s office saying smoke was pouring out of the building, which is located on Highway 57 in McIntyre.

Schneider says all the county’s vehicles go to the transit building, or “county workshop”, as he called it, for maintenance.

He said all the vehicles inside and the building itself was destroyed by the fire. By the time fire crews arrived on the scene, the smoke and flames had already taken over.

“We tried to make entry through the side and the back door, but the smoke was so heavy that we pulled our firefighters out of the building for safety purposes and chose to do an exterior attack on it,” said Schneider.

Luckily, no one was inside when the blaze broke out. As of about 1 am on Tuesday, Schneider said there were no reports of any injured firefighters.

Glenn Allen, spokesman for Insurance and Fire Commissioner Ralph Hudgens told 41NBC Wednesday the fire is being ruled as accidental. The estimated damage is around $500,000. Allen said the building was heated by a liquid propane gas heater and it is believed that the radiant heat ignited a combustible substance which started the fire.