SMITHSBURG - A two-alarm fire late Friday just outside of Smithsburg burned through the early morning hours of Saturday, destroying a wooden-frame storage building and causing $800,000 in damage.
The 200-foot-by-35-foot building near the intersection of Fruit Tree Drive and Greensburg Road is owned by Lester Oswald Jr., Maryland Deputy State Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor said.
Oswald owns Oswald Nurseries Inc. on South Main Street in Smithsburg.
The structure's loss is valued at $700,000, while its lost contents - construction material, equipment and other items - is valued at $100,000, Taylor said.
"Everything up there was a total loss," Cathy Sacco, an employee at Oswald Nurseries, said Saturday.
It took four hours and 100 firefighters from Washington and Frederick counties and Pennsylvania to control the fire, Taylor said.
Fire investigators planned to return to the scene to look for the origin of the fire and then try to determine a cause, he said.