Seven fire departments battle Davis Salvage blaze

From as far away as the entrance to Tattersall Trails Estates, a blaze at Davis Salvage, which is off US25W (Cumberland Falls Highway), sounded like a war zone with a lot of small explosions waking people from their sleep shortly before dawn Saturday morning.

When first responders got on the scene, the heat from the blaze was scorching hot even as far back as the roadway.

Firefighters from seven fire departments managed to contain the blaze to the main office, which was completely destroyed, but managed to keep the fire from spreading to vehicles around the multi-acre lot.

Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department Battalion Chief Allen Lewis said that about 6:20 a.m. emergency workers were notified about heavy smoke in the area. About five minutes later there was another call reporting visible flames.

“It was fully involved when we got on scene. The front of the roof had started falling in a little bit,” Lewis said. “It was hot. We were getting a lot of heat from the road.”

Lewis estimated that it took about 90 minutes to get the blaze under control.

He said this was one of the largest fires that his department has fought in quite some time.

Lewis said that the main building was a total loss.

Lewis noted that there are a lot more combustible items at a salvage yard than what you would encounter at a residential fire, and such fires are more difficult to extinguish.

“There is more burnable stuff like seats, tires and stuff like that involved in this. There is also paper, and packing stuff where they ship stuff. I know they had a fork lift and maybe fork lift gas inside,” Lewis said.

Nobody was injured during the blaze.

There were initially concerns that Peaches, a rescue dog that the Salvage Yard had adopted, might still be in the building. Fortunately, it was able to escape the blaze and could be seen wondering around the property Saturday morning.

Fire departments assisting at the scene included: Oak Grove, Corbin, Woodbine, West Knox, Keavy, Rockholds and Baldrock. Whitley County EMS and Whitley County Emergency Management also responded.

The Whitley County Sheriff’s Department and Corbin Police Department  provided traffic control.