Wednesday's Internet Edition, August 27, 2008.
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| TOTAL LOSS- The home office of P&S Masonry was totally destroyed by a raging fire in the early morning hours Sun-day just east of downtown Hamilton. The remains continued to smolder this week, even as investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office searched for the cause of the catastro-phic blaze. Owners of the business, Paul and Susie Odom, were in Europe on vacation at the time of the fire, and Paul arrived back in Hamilton early Tuesday morning. One of the largest masonry contracting companies in the state, a tempo-rary headquarters had already been set up at the former K.A. Sparks office east of town by Tuesday, now owned by Neil Muxworthy. According to local historian Elreeta Weathers, the first business was opened at the Pecan Creek location in 1907. Staff Photo |
The first alarm came in about 1:30 a.m. Sunday and when the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department responded, they found the nearly block-long structure fully engaged in fire. The heat was so intense that neighbors’ trees were scorched, and a house across the street from the structure had siding melted.
The fire department contin-ued to spray water on the smol-dering remains through the day Sunday, using approximately 250,000 gallons. Smoke was still rising from the ruins Tues-day.
Fire Chief Toby Logan, who is also an employee of P&S, said that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. He said investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office were in town Tuesday and would probably still be investi-gating the remains on Wednes-day. He said that clean-up of the site cannot begin until their investigation is completed.
As a P&S representative, Logan said, “We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused for our neighbors.”
He also said that Pecan Creek has been tested for any environmental problems that the runoff from the large amount of water put on the fire might have caused, but that no problems were found.
At the time of the fire, the Odoms were in Europe on va-cation. Paul flew back as soon as possible and returned to Hamilton in the early morning hours Tuesday.
Logan said the fire will not cause any delays in their on-going field projects and that a temporary office has been set up in the old K.A. Sparks build-ing east of town off Highway 36.. The phone numbers will remain the same.
In addition to the loss of the building, there was also loss of equipment, including a two-ton truck and a Skytrack loader.
P&S Masonry has been lo-cated at the downtown site for several years, but for many years before that it was the home of W.F. and J.F. Barnes Lumber Co. and later Fox-worth-Galbraith.
Local historian Elreeta Weathers emailed the Herald-News some history of the building. According to Weath-ers, the building was opened in 1907 by Capt. C.L. Johnson, who sold the business to W.F. and J.F. Barnes in 1917.