REIDSVILLE, N.C. — A large fire at an old tobacco plant in Reidsville is under control Monday morning.
Rockingham County officials said several agencies were called to the fire off US-29 just before 4 a.m. No one was hurt.
“We had an enormous amount of resources,” emergency services director Rodney Cates said. “We had fire departments from very far and from other countries. It’s been an outpour of support from our fire community.”
Officials said the warehouse where the fire happened has been vacant for years, and they don't yet know how it started.
Parts of US-29 and Narrow Gauge Road was shut down for most of the morning, officials said.
All roads have since reopened.
Fire officials said this is the largest fire they've had to deal with. Traffic was disrupted for some time because of it.
Cates said a large part of the tobacco plant has already collapsed.
“It gives us indication that further collapse could be imminent,” he said. “We don’t know at this time and it’s too insecure to put investigators in at this time.”
The emergency services director said the plant is made of a large amount of brick and metal and said a lot of wood is inside the building too. Cates said no homes were threatened and there should be no concern for air quality near the area where the fire happened.
A number of agencies responded to help put out the fire.
“This fire could have been deadly if we didn’t have the county-wide effort we saw today. Their service, both today and every day, should be commemorated,” Cates said.
As of Monday night crews are still monitoring hot spots. No one was injured in the fire and it's still under investigation.