Fire destroys local business office

OLIVE HILL, Ky. (WSAZ) - A local business is facing a major clean-up effort following a massive fire during the weekend.

R&D Railroad Construction’s office building along U.S. 60 in Olive Hill is left in smoky ruin.

Edward Jones lives across the street. He was asleep when his wife and daughter woke him and told him about the wild sight just outside the window.

“It was already all involved,” Jones said. “We got to watch the whole ordeal from our front porch.”

The fire broke out around 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

“The heat of the fire, you could feel it just like you were sitting against it,” Jones said.

Donna Porter, who co-owns the business with her husband Ricky, says their office building and everything in it was destroyed. She says they’re not sure yet if they’ll rebuild or what’s next.

Porter says they have more than 30 employees, and they do work building and repairing anything related to railroads.

She says, fortunately, the fire won’t cause anyone to be out of work.

Porter says, thankfully, firefighters managed to get the fire under control before it spread to the company’s truck repair business next door.

An official with the Olive Hill Fire Department says the the insurance company will be looking into the cause.

The business has been in that location six years.

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