Posted on 10/03/2014 9:20:46 PM PDT by Morgana
MILTON, WV -
UPDATE: Donald Barker spent Friday morning sifting through rubble, trying to salvage what he could after a fire tore through the Milton Flea Market. He and his family have been vendors for years and lost everything in their booth to the blaze.
“It's not as bad as some of the other people, they lost a lot of money,” Barker said.
A Milton police officer first spotted the blaze around 8 a.m. Four fire departments responded and were able to contain the fire within an hour. News spread quickly through social media, sparking a frenzy among vendors praying they weren't hit.
“It's pretty depressing, really if you think about it,” said Barker.
“[My daughter] sent me a picture over the phone and I said, that's our place burning right there,” said Emma Shepard, who drove from Ona to survey the damage.
The flames destroyed an outbuilding where dozens of vendors were housed. The State Fire Marshal's Office said their preliminary investigation indicated that faulty electrical wiring in the ceiling was to blame. Fire officials say the structure was built back in the 1980s and had no sprinklers inside.
(Excerpt) Read more at wowktv.com ...
Wasn’t there another fire in the last 18 months near Charleston and I think also at a flew market?
Having been around a couple of flea market operations where stalls were built up for more permanent operations....I can vouch that they were all constructed as cheaply as possible, and I would question the electrical installation and safety of each one. No one comes in to inspect projects like this, and folks think it really doesn’t matter if you do a good job or a marginal job.
It’s all over. Every place like this I’ve been in seems on the sketchy side - construction looks so slapdash.
I’m a flea market junkie. You preaching to the choir on that subject brother, or is it sister? Well anyway, this flea market should have learned from the last fire. We never did know what started the last one but I will tell you we all have our best guess. That owner is lucky no one died.
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