ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, Va. — Several businesses are forced to start over after a large industrial fire ripped through a warehouse Thursday evening.
"For the tenants that were in the building, there were car repairs and boat repairs. So the building had a lot of fire load, but it also had a lot of potential hazardous material in it,” said Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Chief Gerry Windley.
Crews from at least six local fire departments were called to the scene at a privately-owned warehouse on Isle of Wight Industrial Park Road in Smithfield, according to Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson.
“This is a lot of their livelihood, and now it’s lost, and now they’ve got to start again from scratch.”
Christopher Najera works near the warehouse. He took a video of it with his cell phone. “I smelled something first, and then I saw big smoke just rising into the sky.”
A total of 13 businesses were destroyed, including Field of Dreams Gymnastics. “There was a lot of tears with the kids and just not understanding cause just 12 hours ago we were just at this gym,” said co-owner Julie Hess.
Hess said they just moved into the space in April 2023. She said more than 60 kids from 4 to 13 attend the gym. Hess said everything was destroyed except an award from the Smithfield Christmas parade.
“You have no idea what fire is capable of, but I hope and pray that we can all figure this out in a good time, and they can all get back to class.”
David Stuart, the owner of Stuart's Marine which was also impacted by the fire, said it was "devastating to lose everything we have worked so hard to build" since opening in 2004.
He said he arrived Thursday morning to find black smoke coming from several of his neighboring businesses.
"I frantically ran inside my business and found smoke coming through the wall," he told 13News Now in an email. "I evacuated our shop just before my office and bathroom burst into flames from the glowing red wall behind them."
Stuart said he was the first to call 911 to report the fire. He said his shop was completely destroyed, including a boat that had been parked inside the shop.
"It got so hot all of the aluminum melted into puddles in the floor. It destroyed all of our hand and specialty tools in our 3,750sq ft shop," Stuart said. "We are sifting through the ash this week and hope to rebuild."
The scene was turned back over to the owner Friday morning, and they will be working with the Department of Environmental Quality to complete additional hazardous material cleanup if needed.