That is unless you want it in the form of charcoal.
Last Monday night there where 2 Porters lumber yards burned down the same night. They have found that they where arson. They where in semi-suburban, semi-rual areas near KC.
Last night Schutte Lumber burned down. They where in an industrial area in the middle of KC.
News said that they lost 80% of their stock.
Schutte had a nice selection of hardwood lumber, including some exotics in addition to their construction lumber.
Replies
Full story from the star:
Wonder who's doing this and I hope they hang them. I haven't been to the other yards, but Schutte was the best yard I've ever been too. Huge selection great service.
Four-alarm fire rages at KC lumberyard
By MARA ROSE WILLIAMS
The Kansas City Star
A four-alarm fire early today heavily damaged Schutte Lumber, 3001 Southwest Blvd. It was the third lumberyard fire in the Kansas City area in the past week.
The Schutte fire was reported at 2:42 a.m. A huge lumber shed was destroyed, fire officials said, and a mobile building containing a sales office burned. The fire also melted two 36-foot flatbed trucks, but did not reach a 5,000-gallon underground gasoline tank.
Smoke from the fire filled streets and seeped into buildings from downtown to the Country Club Plaza.
By 2 p.m., firefighters had contained the fire but were still putting out hot spots.
No damage estimate was available, and no cause had been determined.
Two investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene. There was no immediate indication of any link to two lumberyard fires last week in Clay County.
Schutte operations manager Matt Brown said he did not know when the business would reopen.
The Schutte fire occurred one day after federal investigators announced that separate five-alarm fires that ravaged two family-owned businesses in Clay County were intentionally set.
Authorities think the fires at the Porter Building Supply store in Kearney and the Porter distribution center in Mosby were deliberate acts, but they wouldn't say how they were set or why. Early estimates of the loss were about $2 million.
Paul J. Vido, a special agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in charge of the three-day investigation, had said the nature of the fires was suspicious but declined to further elaborate.
"Both were criminal acts," Vido said at a news conference Saturday.
Vido said a 30-member arson task force made up of federal, state, county and local investigators had been formed to gather additional evidence and to interview several persons who may have information about the fires.
He said that investigators wanted to interview several current and former employees and several people who live near the locations, but that no arrests had been made.
About 70 investigators spent three days sorting through mounds of charred debris and twisted metal, trying to determine the cause of the fires.
Vido said there were similarities at both fire scenes, but he wouldn't say what they were. Dogs trained to detect the presence of accelerants found the sources of the fires.
Evidence gathered at fire scenes will be taken to the ATF national laboratory in Rockville, Md., for further analysis, he said.
The first fire was reported at the Porter Building Supply store along Missouri 92 in Kearney at 10:33 p.m. Monday. The second was reported at 12:55 a.m. Tuesday at the Porter distribution center lumberyard on U.S. 69 in Mosby.
Craig Porter, part owner of the family business, said both properties were insured.
"We were pretty sure it was intentionally set, so it wasn't a surprise," Porter said.
Anyone with information about the fires is asked to call the ATF arson task force at (816) 903-3810.
http://www.kansascity.com
ELF is on the move again.
That was the first thought I had, but I don't remember them bragging on burning down lumber yards on their web page, just car dealerships and home developments.
They're starting to think ahead. Why wait until the houses are built. Get all the lumber at once and you don't have to seach for all those individual targets.
Anybody watching the back gate at the SUV plant?
wish they would burn my SUV so I could get a new truck ;)
"ELF is on the move again."
I seriously doubt it.
First you usually don't see "those kind" in the heartland.
And now of these places are the kind that would attrack anykind of attention. Porters was a group of family owned yards in the KC area and Schuttes was a private owned company. Nothing that would make they stand out.
If some one was going to do something like that to "make a point" HD or Lowes would make more sense.
And there are not much in the way of over the top projects going on in the area.
Or mob ?.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
I will almost bet when they catch the person it will turn out to be one of three types of people.
Ex-employee from the lumber yard.
home owner that is mad at the lumber yards for jacking up the price of osb and ply.
manager from one of the big boxes that was told to increase sales numbers or he is gone.
Big box manager.
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
The Starless has an updated veresion of the story online now. It is the same one that is in the paper.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/7002949.htm
They used to never have the pictures online. But now that they require registration they have the main picture, but no the one showing it after or the side bar article.
Here are a few bits of information.
About 1/2 of the 3 block yard (13 arces) was in flames.
4 large connect 2 level lumber hseds where destroyed along with parts of 2 warehouses and mobile building that they used as a sales office.
The showroom and mill where not damaged.
Schutte's was started in 1880.
"Schutte Lumber provides specialty service to dozens of commercial contractors, construction companies, area lumberyards and even weekend home remoddelers."
"It is one of only a handful of regional lumberyards that provide specialty plywood and other wood products. Fyock said Schutte offers and sassortment of hard-to-find wood proudctssuch as exotic hardwood, specialty plywood and composite decking."
They service arreas from Omaha to Topeka and Manhattan, KS and Colubmia and CLinton, MO.
They also wholesale to other lumber and specialty stores.
The first Porter fire burned a warehouse, $500,000.
The 2nd Porter fire burned a football sized building, $1.5 mill.
No losses set on the Schutte fire yet.
from what I've seen ... the big box managers don't have that much initiative ....
opening another cash register is a life altering experience ..... doubt they'd actually drive somewhere to commit a crime!
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
I AM A CAPTAIN ON ONE OF HE RESPONDING LADDER COMPANIES TO THAT FIRE. MYSELF AND MY CREW SPENT 12 HRS ON SUNDAY WETTING DOWN HOT SPOTS AND DIGGING THROUGH DEBRIS. THE DESTRUCTION WAS AMAZING THERE WAS 10-12 INCH STEEL BEAMS TWISTED INTO ALL DIFFERENT SHAPES. EARLY ESTIMATES ARE RUNNING SOMEWHERE AROUND 3.0 MILLION +/-. THESE FIRES HAS EVERYONE ON THE FD ON EDGE.
THESE FIRES HAS EVERYONE ON THE FD ON EDGE
I noticed - the roar of those flames must have been deafening...
Thanks for the job you do - may God bless you and the crew with continued safety and speedy success in resolving these arson cases.Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
Becareful out there.
Is there any advance in the investigation you could speek of?
Looks like the caught a few responsible for the Schutte fire, A co-worker went there on Friday first time anyone I know has been there since the fire, he said it looked like a bomb hit the place.
During a press conference, Jackson County prosecutors said second-degree arson charges were filed Saturday against Mary Linder, 18; Jason Jenkins, 19;
Rocky McLaury, 19; David Strobl, 24. Prosecutors allege the suspects set the October 12th fire at Schutte Lumber Company.
Earlier that month, arson fires did about $2 million worth of damage to two Clay County lumber yards owned by the same family. A deputy spokesman in the prosecutor's office says authorities do NOT believe the fires are related. But the possibility has NOT been ruled out.
The prosecutor's office has requested a bond of $50,000 for each of the suspects. All four lived in the Kansas City-area. Two other suspects remained at large
I just saw this on the 10pm TV news.