LEWISBURG — When she saw the barn at White Pine and Hawn alleys early Tuesday, the second floor was on fire.
“I was probably the third person to call 911,” Rachel Lowenstein, a Bucknell student from upstate New York, said as she checked over her vehicle for damage. “There were a lot of flames shooting out the top floor.”
The barn — at least 150 years old — caught fire about 1:15 a.m. and quickly spread to nearby garages and sheds in the tightly packed alley behind 715 Market St.
About a dozen vehicles were destroyed or damaged, and at least four additional buildings were damaged either by fire, smoke or water.
No one was injured.
Trooper Norman Fedder, a Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal from the Milton barracks, said the damage was too excessive to determine a cause.
“There was electricity going to the building,” he said, adding that the structure was not completely secured.
The fire likely spread along power lines across the alley and sparked the other buildings. Fedder said the first person to call 911 reported hearing a “popping noise” and saw the fire inside the building when he went to investigate.
Fedder approximated the damage in excess of $200,000. The owners of the properties have insurance, he said. It appears many were renting garage space to residents in nearby apartment buildings.
Firefighters from Lewisburg, Union and White Deer townships, Mifflinburg, Warrior Run, Milton and New Berlin companies responded and had the blaze under control in about an hour, fire officials said.
The owner of the barn, Brian Gockley, 48, declined to comment. But he said part of the building contained an 1800s-era bicycle repair shop. Other items and vehicles were seen on what was left of the first floor.
Fedder said the second floor was a game room, with furniture and entertainment devices.
The other structures appeared to be used mostly for storage or housing vehicles.
Some vehicles were parked in a lot to the rear of South Seventh Street. Their bumpers and tail lights were melted. An old-model Chrysler parked behind a garage next door to the barn was charred inside and out.
Bits of burned wood and soot mixed with water in the morning air Tuesday, sending a pungent odor for blocks around.
Amy Lucas, who lives on Market Street, said she woke up about 1:30 a.m. and saw the fire between the houses of her neighbors across the street.
“It was blazing,” she said.
As for Lowenstein, her car was parked less than 10 feet from one of the other garages that caught fire. Though her driver’s side rearview mirror was melted, her car appeared to have fared better than others parked close by.
“It was definitely exciting for a Tuesday night in Lewisburg,” she said.
-- E-mail comments to jdeinlein@dailyitem.com
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Fire rips through alleys in Lewisburg early Tuesday morning. Contributed by Ian Murray
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