Saturday blaze destroys fairground building
CENTREVILLE – More than a half dozen agencies responded Saturday afternoon to a building fire at St. Joseph County Fairgrounds.
Strong winds proved to be a nemesis to firefighters, according to Centreville Fire Chief Dave Miracle.
One merchant barn, Building 42, was destroyed and two additional – both adjacent to the destroyed barn – suffered exterior damage, he said.
Central dispatch alerted Centreville Fire at 4:11 p.m. Miracle said he knew when he arrived the situation was grim.
“There were flames on the roof when I got there, heavy smoke, flames coming through the roof … it was burning pretty good,” he said. “It’s definitely not the biggest fire I’ve ever seen, nothing like when Graber Industries burned down two years ago and I was there when the grandstand at the fairgrounds burned to the ground. But this was still a good-sized building and truly a bit overwhelming at first, but to finally get it under control and find out we only had the one barn on fire, that was a major relief.”
In addition to Centreville Fire, Fabius-Park Townships, Three Rivers, Mendon, Burr Oak, Colon and Tri-Township departments also responded.
Miracle’s primary role during the response was coordinating crews. Considering the magnitude of the fire and the number of people responding, he said the situation was a daunting task.
“You try to coordinate what trucks you want where and who you want doing what, but with a barn this size, you have to try to limit the damage as much as possible,” Miracle said, noting adjacent barns sat just 30 feet on either side of the on-fire barn. “It gets very hectic, very stressful trying to coordinate something of this caliber but everybody that showed up did an awesome job.”
The 42-by-230-foot merchant barn that was lost was positioned as the third of a five-building cluster. There are two additional merchant buildings to its south and two 4-H display/trophy barns to its north.
Miracle said there was considerable loss in the form of nearly two dozen boats, which were in the building for winter storage.
Miracle said he planned to return to the scene Sunday to conduct an investigation into the cause. He said he had a few theories but would wait to confirm before publicly stating the source of the fire.
Crews were on scene for about four hours. Miracle reiterated strong winds posed a considerable problem.
“The wind played a huge part in working against us today,” he said.
Miracle said he recognizes the significance of the fairgrounds to St. Joseph County residents. He, as well as fair officials, said Saturday’s blaze took out an important building but it can and will eventually be replaced.
Still, he said it was probably disturbing for passers-by to see thick, black smoke coming from a location typically associated with happy times and good memories.
“The fairgrounds is a place where we all feel like we have kind of some ownership … this fire today is definitely devastating,” Miracle said. “Hopefully they can get somebody to come in there and get (Building 42) cleaned up and get it rebuilt. I think we all hope it can be rebuilt in time for the 2024 fair but if not, we’ll just have one less merchant barn this year.”
Fair official Mindy Timm said the loss of the merchant building was a blow, but the fair will continue as scheduled, Sept. 15-21.
“I jumped in my car and when I got here, it was a pretty helpless feeling seeing such a familiar building go up in flames,” she said.
She said the fairgrounds will be closed to the public at least through the early part of the week. Timm said as of Saturday night, the fate of Thursday’s twice-a-year collection of household hazardous waste and electronics recycling is unknown.
She advised to check on the fair’s website for an update on that event.
Undersheriff Jason Bingaman said the sheriff’s department was on hand to provide support to firefighters and traffic control along East Main Street in front of the fairgrounds.
He commended the local fire agencies for working together as efficiently and effectively as they did.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Saturday blaze destroys fairground building
