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August 23, 2010

Fire damages country club pro shop

By Staff New Castle News

NEW CASTLE — A predawn fire on Sunday damaged the pro shop at the New Castle Country Club.

The fire mostly was confined to a 9-by-15-foot mechanical room adjacent to the shop, Neshannock Township fire Chief John DiCola Jr. said.

“However,” he added, “there was a lot of smoke in the pro shop, where they have all the clothing and the golf supplies, so while there’s not a lot of fire damage, there’s probably a fair amount of damage from smoke.”

DiCola noted that firefighters also had to cut a hole in the roof of the shop to ventilate it, but he believes that the blaze did not affect play in a weekend tournament at the country club.

Attempts to reach country club pro Ned Weaver were unsuccessful.

A fire alarm in the building went off at 4:01 a.m. Sunday, and the Lawrence County 911 Center responded by summoning Neshannock firefighters.

“We had a police officer who was at the corner of (Route) 18 and Mitchell Road, like 30 seconds away,” DiCola said. “He pulled in and he saw what he thought was a vent with light smoke or steam coming out.

“I was a minute or so behind, and by that time, there was heavy smoke and it was obvious that it wasn’t from a vent or a furnace.”

DiCola issued a mutual aid call, to which New Wilmington Borough and Union and Mahoning townships responded.

Firefighters located the fire in the mechanical building, “and we knocked it down pretty quick,” DiCola said. “The fire damage was pretty much confined to the mechanical room (which contained two furnaces, an air conditioner and a water heater), but there was a little bit of fire that started to attack the roof, and we took care of that pretty quickly as well.

“I think inside an hour we had everything taken care of.”

A fire marshal was called to investigate the blaze, “but we don’t suspect any kind of foul play,” DiCola said. “It appears to have been accidental. We just have a couple more employees to interview, and we should know for sure (Monday).”

Two Neshannock firefighters were taken to Jameson Hospital. One was treated for heat exhaustion and released, while the other was complaining of chest pains and held for observation.

“All in all, it was a pretty good stop,” DiCola said. “They should be able to recover relatively quickly.”

 

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