An Islandton workshop in the on Sniders Hwy (SC Hwy 63) was destroyed Saturday morning January 13. At 10:52, 9-1-1 received a report of the fire advising the building was well involved. Units from Station 15 in Islandton could see the column of smoke from the station two miles away. Engine 15 arrived to find the 50x50 block building fully involved with a portion of the roof already collapsed. Shortly after arrival, the remainder of the roof collapsed. A grass fire had ignited and was burning toward a camper on the property which was used as a residence. The roof of the camper was also on fire. Downed power lines hampered the effort to reach the camper, but firefighters were able to extinguish the flames on the camper with little damage to the camper. Crews worked for 30 minutes to extinguish the building fire. A local farmer brought a tractor equipped with loading forks to the scene and used the forks to remove the heavy metal roof, enabling firefighters to extinguish the flames under the roof. Crews were on the scene for three and half hours performing overhaul. It appears the cause of the fire was a space heater in the building. No one was injured during the incident which caused traffic to be blocked on Sniders Highway.
