RED LION, Pa. — Wisps of smoke could still be seen Monday rising from the ashes of Sunday’s fire at an abandoned warehouse in Red Lion. Crews were called twice in the morning to put out reignited rubble, according to an Alliance Fire and Rescue responder at the scene.
Throughout the day, a trickle of neighbors streamed by the site on East Lancaster St. to check out the scene. Many said they saw dark clouds of smoke when the fire began Sunday morning.
“I was just watching TV and I looked out the window and there was black smoke coming up from this area. I heard a lot of fire sirens, a lot of fire trucks coming for like an hour, just constantly trucks coming in,” said Brian Mittle, who drove by the site on Monday.
Thirty fire companies from six counties were called in to battle the flames around 7:22 a.m. on Sunday. It took about nine hours before firefighters cleared the scene around 4 p.m.
The property was a complex of wooden buildings, warehouses and a feed mill. Emergency responders said the warehouse was empty except for a few barrels of used motor oil.
One Red Lion resident, Darlene Johnson, said she and her husband could smell the motor oil burning.
“It was scary. The ashes from the flames, he could taste it,” Johnson said. “I was trying to put my scarf around my face. He said it tasted like oil. He said there are chemicals in there.”
No one was displaced by the fire.
“I’m glad it didn’t do any more damage to the properties around here,” Johnson said.
The York County Office of Emergency Management said some motor oil runoff entered a nearby creek, but was quickly contained.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is monitoring the situation, but did not respond to a request for an update on Monday.
The Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire. As of Monday, they had no updates.