WYALUSING, Pa. — The C.C. Allis and Sons Lumber Company in Orwell Township near Wyalusing has been around for two centuries.
Late Monday night, crews were called for a fire at the sawmill on the property.
"My nephew called me this morning on the phone about 12 o'clock and wanted to inform me the sawmill was on fire, I checked out my back window, I live across the field from the place, and it was fully engulfed at that point," recounts co-owner Tim Allis.
Nearly a dozen fire departments responded to tackle the fire.
Now all that's left of the sawmill is charred equipment and other materials.
"It's just another stumble in the road of life, you just move on and keep going. You can't control the uncontrollable," said Allis.
Tim Allis owns the property with his two siblings. He says about one-third of the business comes out of the mill, which has been in the family for 200 years.
"It started as a sawmill up on top on the creek, water-powered to a mill that we have nowadays. We would do 10 to 12 thousand feet a day," said Allis.
The Allis family is still deciding whether or not they'll rebuild. In the meantime, it's mostly business as usual.
"We are still open. The only thing we don't have is a way of producing our natural lumber, which is hemlock and pine. We do have a mill or two that we can outsource a little bit too for some orders to fill in, but we have everything else here, it didn't affect other business," explained Allis.
The Herrick Township Fire Chief called the fire accidental. No one was working at the time at the time of the fire.
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