SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Smoke and flames lit up the sky in Selinsgrove as a building was heavily damaged by fire Wednesday night.
A fire broke out at the building along the 200 block of North Market Street in Selinsgrove around 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
"I just saw the flames starting to shoot out. My friend and I got out of our cars. I called 911 as soon as I could, called the Selinsgrove Hotel, and it just started to engulf. It was crazy," Kelsey Ritter said.
This is the former Penn Wilbert Vault Company that manufactured burial vaults. The building has been vacant for several years.
The owners of this building planned to put a distillery there, but renovations had not yet started.
Officials in Selinsgrove say there were no utilities turned on at this building. The fire chief does not know the fire started.
Richard Walter lives nearby and sees people go in and out of the building.
"The cops chase them out. I bet they've chased them out of there 25 times since it's been empty. That keeps them out for about a week or so, then they're back in again."
Walter is happy the fire did not spread to his property.
"I thought, 'Well, I'm going to get the car out of there.' I can't move the garage, but I can move the car, so I moved the car up here. Fortunately, it didn't harm the garage at all."
Ritter agrees. Her boyfriend owns the Selinsgrove Hotel across the street from the vacant building.
"At first, I thought it was the hotel, so I was trying to call him. I was freaking out. Thankfully, the wind wasn't going this way because the hotel would have been affected."
A state police fire marshal will investigate the cause of the fire.
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