slideshow

PICKENS—Fire fighters worked all night on Tuesday to contain a blaze at Brunswick Yarn Mill in Pickens that resulted in half the building being destroyed.

The Pickens Fire Department was the first to respond.

“We got the call at about 9 p.m. Tuesday night,” said Pickens Fire Marshall Stebo Saylors. “We were told there was some smoke. We responded and started making our attacks.”

Saylors says it was then the team noticed that they needed assistance.

“Once we started making our attacks, we were being blocked,” said Saylors. “We started calling our neighboring departments here in the county. We called Oconee County and Anderson County. At this time, it is undetermined what the cause of the fire is.”

Saylors says no one was injured in the fire.

“Half of the building is at loss, but nobody is hurt,” said Saylors. “We’re going to be here all day.”

The Marshall says crews were staying fresh through Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We’ve actually rotated personnel out with other departments to have a fresh crew in at all times,” said Saylors. “I’m looking at a time frame of the rest of (Wednesday) to get it cleared up.”

“Everybody that has been here has responded quickly,” Saylors continued. “Everybody has just been able to jump in and help out.”

Easley Fire Chief Butch Womack says teams from his fire department were on the scene all night as well.

“We normally responded to fires like that only a couple of times every year,” said Womack. “We offer mutual aid to them just like they would to us if we had the same thing here.”

As of Wednesday, the cause of the fire was still unknown.

“There will be a further investigation,” said Saylors. “At this point in time it remains undetermined.”

Womack says more information will come when the scene clears.

“We had a great spot to look at where it started, but we were never actually able to get anybody in there because of the hazards and the dangers,” said Womack. “It looks a lot different now than what we had at two o’clock in the morning.”