January 13th, 2025 by WCBC Radio

Deputy State Fire Marshals continue to investigate the cause of a building fire in Garrett County that caused over one million dollars in damages early Sunday morning. At around 4:20 a.m., Grantsville Volunteer Fire Department and surrounding departments were called to Corsa Coal Corporation, located at 865 Durst Road, after an employee responding to check on the property discovered an approximate 100 x 80 industrial storage building engulfed. It took around 30 firefighters about 20 minutes to control the one-alarm fire, and no injuries were reported. Firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading into adjacent structures, The Office of the State Fire Marshal was requested to investigate. After reviewing video footage located on the property, they determined that the fire broke out just before 3:00 a.m., and it took the employee, who lives in Pennsylvania, an hour to respond. Due to the secluded location, no other calls were made. According to their website, the coal mine has 100 full-time employees. Investigators, assisted by K9 Blondie, worked throughout the morning and concluded that the fire originated within the building where various mechanical and electrical equipment was stored. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Accelerant detection canine teams respond to large dollar loss scenes as an agency standard operating procedure. It is unknown if the fire will disrupt any long-term operations at the coal mine.