By Wainwright Jeffers - bio | email
ALBANY, GA (WALB) - A warehouse fire kept dozens of firefighters busy Friday afternoon.
There were no visible flames, but there was major damage to the Farmers Peanut Company warehouse in Whigham.
"About 2:17PM we received a call that the peanut warehouse was on fire," said Chief Scott Newberry, Whigham Fire Department.
More than a half dozen crews from in and around Grady County responded.
Heavy equipment and 18 wheelers were brought in to help remove the more than 38 hundred tons of peanuts so firefighters could get water to the portions on fire.
"They started using the excavators and the heavy equipment to get the peanuts out; our problem is our fire is at the very top of it where we can't really call the peanuts to get to it," said Newberry.
This is not the first major fire at this compound, during a previous blaze firefighters also tore down the zinc walls to get to the burning nuts.
"I actually worked the fire 22 years ago and that's the same thing we did then," said Newberry.
The official cause into the fire is underway, but the likely culprit may have been sparks from welding equipment.
"I understood they were doing some repairs I have not confirmed that yet there's a building inspector here now he's looking into that," said Newberry.
Managers say they will rebuild once all the damage has been assessed.
Fire officials hope to have everything out by morning.
The warehouse is a complete loss.
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