SPENCER — As many as 75 firefighters worked to put out a structure fire at the old Yadkin School building at the demolished Color-Tex plant late Sunday and well into Monday morning.
According to Spencer Fire Chief Gray Grubb, firefighters were dispatched to the old manufacturing plant on N.C. 29 at about 10:55 p.m.
Grubb said the building was vacant and about 50 percent of the structure was engulfed in flames when units arrived moments later.
“We were there till approximately 5 a.m. this morning,” Grubb said Monday. “I had seven or eight departments there and it was anywhere from 50 to 75 firefighters.”
Grubb said fire units took a defensive approach to fighting the fire and did not send any firefighters into the building.
Grubb said Spencer Police and the Rowan County Fire Marshal’s Office are handling the investigation. The Fire Marshal’s Office investigator handling the case could not be reached Monday.
Flames were as high as 50 to 80 feet, Grubb said.
“It was going pretty good,” he said. “It had the whole sky lit up.”
The site of the former N.C. Finishing Co., the property was touted as the future home of a road-racing course but has been tied up in the courts for several years.