SUGARCREEK (Tusco TV) - The state fire marshall is investigating an early-morning blaze that ravaged Walnut Creek Amish Flea Market Wednesday.

Fire Chief Dr. Kevin Miller says the fire broke sometime during the early morning hours, with the initial call coming in just before 4 am.

"We were paged initially about 3:53 this morning for a report of a structure fire with flames showing through the roof. That was the situations that we found upon arrival. The fire had a pretty good start on us."

The situation had state Route 39 closed for most of the morning with traffic rerouted in both directions as crews from about 20 different fire departments worked together to battle the flames. Miller says even though one of the fire doors wasn’t working properly, they were able to keep the fire from spreading to the rest of the building.   

“We had three ladder trucks in operation and we had two fill sites for the tanker trucks so we never ran out of water, except for maybe 30 seconds,” he says. “They did a really good job. I think all the guys did well.”

Miller says they were starting to wrap things up around 10 am. 

“The roof was a metal roof and that had collapsed and had trapped the fire underneath so we were moving so that we could finish the extinguishment. We’re checking for extension on the one side of the building. There’s a little bit of smoldering insulation which we’re putting out, hopefully getting ready to shut down the operation within the next hour or so."

Miller says the main portion of the building was completely damaged with heavy smoke damage to the rest of the building. No one was inside, and no injuries were reported. The market typically houses around 55 vendors and was scheduled to open to Thursday morning.

TUSCO TV