Fire continues to smolder at carpet company


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WEST VALLEY CITY -- Fire crews from several agencies spent their New Year's battling a swift-moving fire at a West Valley City carpet company.

Fire started at the Carpet Barn at 3725 South and Redwood Road around 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Friday night, some parts of the building are still burning. Firefighters say they'll be there all night and possibly for the next couple of days.

Flames rip through the building Thursday.
Flames rip through the building Thursday.

It's not the way the owner's son, John MacQueen, envisioned starting 2010. "Your life's work — what are you going to do?" he asked.

The petroleum in the carpet and supplies made it impossible for crews to fight the fire from inside the building, so they remained outside and fought it defensively.

"It was huge," he said. "By the time I got extinguishers, within seconds, it didn't do much."

MacQueen's father started the Carpet Barn in 1968. MacQueen says he practically grew up in the store. "I've been here since I was in first grade," he said.

He said he, his father and two employees were the only people inside the store when the fire began near the loading dock. He thinks an employee was using a weed burner to melt ice and it caught some materials underneath the door on fire.

Flames swept through the store in minutes.

Capt. Joe White with the West Valley City Fire Department said, "We have had a little bit of a water supply issue," he added.

Too little water turned into too much, and fire crews became concerned about possible flooding at nearby apartments. They now are monitoring the flames and continuing to let the blaze burn itself out.

All that's left of the MacQueen's Carpet Barn is some bricks and a few smoldering rolls of carpet.

"At least everybody got out. That's kind of the lucky part," MacQueen said.

This is the company's only building. The owners haven't yet decided their plans for the future.

E-mail: jstagg@ksl.com


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