Second fire in eight months strikes Lanark ag business

LANARK – The cause of a fire that burned the Carroll Service Co. building in the 300 block of Carroll Street on Aug. 4 still is under investigation, Fire Chief Cory Barnes said.

It’s the second fire in eight months to damage Carroll Service properties.

No one was injured in the fire that broke out around 6 a.m. in the small building, which is separate from the office at 504 W. state Route 64.

Lanark and Shannon firefighters responded, but stopped using water, evacuated the building and began to contain the runoff as soon as they realized ag products stored there had spilled out of their containers.

The EPA and other agencies were called in to make sure the products were properly contained, and the company still is doing inventory checks to identify exactly what products and chemicals were involved, General Manager Chase Sellnow said Wednesday.

The EPA has been on site since, monitoring and advising on the cleanup effort, Sellnow said.

There is no danger to the general population or the city, he added.

Although that building is not in use, the rest of Carroll Services Co. is up and running, Sellnow said

It’s been a rough year for the company, which lost its nearly-50-year-old Lanark Building Center, home to a lumberyard, hardware store and ag coop, to a massive fire that began around 7:30 p.m. Jan. 9.

It took until 1 p.m. the next day to clear the scene; fire departments from five counties battled the blaze, Barnes said at the time.

No decisions have been made on whether to rebuild that site, which is nearby at at 213 W. Carroll St., Sellnow said.

That fire, which officials said was not suspicious, started in the workshop and destroyed the building, its contents, a forklift and two pickup trucks. A cause has not yet been determined, the Fire Marshal’s Office said.

Carroll Service Co. has been in business in this Carroll County village of about 1,500 since 1963.