Despite a blaze tearing through the north end of the Home Lumber building Friday night, the grounds were buzzing with activity Monday.

Store Manager Jaron Irvin said he was called about 9:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6.

“By the time I got into town they had the flames knocked down, still spraying plenty of water,” he said. “All departments involved did a phenomenal job.”

Ellsworth County Emergency Management Director Keith Haberer said the Ellsworth Volunteer Fire Department called for mutual aid from both Holyrood and Kanopolis.

“Wilson fire also said they could help,” Haberer said. “Wilson arrived on scene also.”

Irvin said the exact cause of the blaze is still under investigation.

“From what we can tell from the camera footage, it was potentially a water heater that shorted out,” he said “but it’s all under investigation up to this point.”

Haberer said firefighters made entry through both the front and back doors.

During an interview Monday afternoon, Irvin said the entire main building is closed to customers.

“We are open right now, able to do transactions, (we’re) set up here in the lumber shed,” he said.

“Wednesday morning we’ll have a mobile office set up out there. We’re just going to operate what we can, the best we can for however long we need to.”

Similarly, insurance adjustors will be on-site Wednesday to estimate the total damages to both inventory and building.

“I think we lost everything,” Irvin said of the inventory in the main building.

Even with the setback, he said business can still move forward.

“We’ve got four stores within an hour drive, so we can get anything that anybody needs,” Irvin said.

“We can drive anything from them.

“All of our suppliers are going to bring us trucks if we need. We might have lost all of the inventory inside of the store, but we can still get what we need.”

Irvin said the emergency workers who responded were phenomenal.

“The community has been just amazing, reaching out, sending prayers and best wishes,” he said.

“Thank you to everybody for your support.

“We got knocked down, but we’ll be back up soon. We’ll do whatever we can to keep on taking care of the community.”