A fire that tore through Sweirkos Enterprises on School Road in Washington Lands, just south of Moundsville, rekindled overnight after crews believed they had it knocked down, forcing Washington Lands Elementary School to switch to remote learning Monday. The blaze had already triggered a shelter-in-place order Sunday for residents of Washington Lands, Round Bottom, and Roberts Ridge, along with a lengthy closure of W.Va. 2.
The 911 Center received the initial call at 11:36 a.m. Sunday, and when the first fire units arrived, the building was already fully involved, according to Marshall County Emergency Management Director Tom Hart, as reported by The Intelligencer. Hart said the shelter-in-place order was issued because of heavy smoke hanging over the area, a precaution that pulled in fire departments from Marshall, Wetzel, and Belmont counties to battle the flames together.
Order Lifted, Highway Reopened Sunday Evening
By 6 p.m. Sunday, Hart said the fire had been knocked down with no hot spots remaining, a sign that the worst of the danger had passed. The shelter-in-place order's end time was reported differently by two outlets: The Intelligencer put it at 5:40 p.m., while WTRF reported it was lifted around 6 p.m. Sunday. W.Va. 2 in Washington Lands, meanwhile, stayed closed in both directions until 6:30 p.m. as crews worked the scene.
State and federal environmental officials also showed up as the day wore on. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency both arrived later Sunday, according to the same Intelligencer report, underscoring the scale of the response to a fire large enough to fully engulf a commercial building.
Fire Flares Back Up, Cause Still a Mystery
The sense that the fire was fully contained didn't last. A Monday report from WV MetroNews said the blaze rekindled overnight, sending crews back to the scene, where they called in an excavator to tear apart debris and douse the hot spots underneath. Nobody was injured in either phase of the fire, and a cause still hasn't been determined, the outlet reported.
The state Department of Environmental Protection has stayed on scene as well, continuing to monitor air and water quality following the fire, per the same report. Hart told the outlet that the materials stored at the warehouse aren't toxic unless they're actively burning, offering some reassurance even as the investigation into what sparked the blaze continues.
School Pivots to Remote Learning
With smoke and cleanup still unresolved Sunday night, Washington Lands Elementary School announced it would hold remote learning Monday rather than bring students back into a building situated close to the fire scene. The decision reflects how disruptive the weekend blaze proved to be for the small Marshall County community, even after firefighters initially believed they had the flames under control.
