HARTVILLE − An early morning on July 9 caused substantial damage to a vacant building that was part of the former Schumacher Lumber complex, the village’s fire department said.
No one was hurt, and no one was in the building when the fire started, said Hartville Fire Chief Mike Lorentz.
The blaze at 200 Mill St. SE, reported by a passerby at 5:55 a.m., took about two and a half hours to get under control by more than 40 firefighters from eight fire departments, Lorentz said.
The fire severely damaged the structural supports and brought down part of the roof. The fire chief said the building cannot be salvaged, is not safe to enter and will have to be demolished.
Schumacher Lumber complex in Hartville
Lorentz said the cause of the fire is unknown. A state fire investigator visited the scene July 9 to try to determine what led to the blaze.
The chief said when firefighters arrived around sunrise they saw intense flames and smoke coming from the center of the complex, which was difficult to reach. To connect hoses across streets to fire hydrants, firefighters had to close to traffic for more than four hours state Route 43 (Prospect Avenue S) and state Route 619, aka Maple Street.
Firefighters then attacked the fire from a ladder truck and from the south side of the complex.
Because active power lines were connected to the building and firefighters faced the risk of electrocution, Ohio Edison agreed to cut off electricity to that section of Hartville for about two hours. The village’s fire station was among the customers to lose power.
Firefighters were at the site until late the afternoon of July 9 tending to hot spots.
Lorentz said the building, whose owner is listed as Big Oak Realty LLC of Sandy Township, had nothing of value and no occupants. The building in the fenced complex had abandoned equipment. The blaze did not reach adjoining buildings used as warehouses to store items nor the building at 127 Mill St. SE where consignment store Best Bib and Tucker is located.
The nearby Hartville Chocolate Factory posted pictures of the fire’s aftermath taken by village residents Cory and Jordan Rockich.
Long history
According to the Stark County Auditor’s records, the 1,200-square-foot building on 4.54 acres dates back to 1929. The auditor’s office assessed the tax value of the property at $799,300 for the building and $224,200 for the land. Big Oak purchased the property for $162,500 from Jeffries Brothers Excavating and Paving in 2016.
The fire departments assisting Hartville were Uniontown, Greentown, Plain Township and Marlboro Township along with Suffield and Randolph in Portage County.
Lorentz said Schumacher Lumber closed around 2008 or 2009.
The complex dates back to the 1880s when brothers Frank and Henry Schumacher founded the saw mill and lumber business, making and selling screen doors and ladders, according to a 2015 Akron Beacon Journal article.
Frank Schumacher is credited with bringing paved roads, electricity and phone service to Hartville, the article said. He later acquired the Economy Feed Mill business by his lumber business. And in 1912, he founded the Quality Rubber business, which became the Monarch Rubber Co. and later Beshaw Tire and Rubber Co., which made molded car parts in the 1930s.
In 2020, Village Council approved the conversion of part of the space of an adjoining building on the complex into apartments.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Firefighters tackle blaze at former Schumacher Lumber building in Hartville
Reporting by Robert Wang, Canton Repository / The Repository
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