ABOVE: The door to the garage at the Martin County Library in Fairmont boarded up following a fire earlier this month. A replacement has been ordered.

FAIRMONT– It’s been a little over two weeks since a fire started on the garage on the east side of the Martin County Library in Fairmont. While the library closed for a week in order for clean-up to take place, it has been operating normally since.

Martin County Library Director, Jenny Trushenski, detailed the events of the morning of June 12 when the fire started.

“It was right away in the morning, shortly before we opened so no one from the public was in here yet, which was a good thing because there were fewer people to hustle out of here,” Trushenski said.

All library staff, including the library’s two gerbils, got out of the building when Fairmont Fire Department members came in and told them to vacate the building. Trushenski said the smoke alarms never went off because the fire was outside of the building and contained to the outside of the library garage, which is used for storage of ladders, shelves and maintenance equipment.

“We could see smoke in the air once we were outside,” she said.

The library closed that day and Service Master came in and ran air purifying machines because there was smoke that had come into the building. The company also worked on cleaning the air ducts and the carpeting.

Trushenski said they’re fortunate that there was not a lot of damage. She said they’re especially thankful that none of the books caught fire or that the smoke set off the sprinklers, which would have caused water damage.

“It could have been a lot worse for sure. The wall between the garage and the building did its job,” Trushenski said.

While there wasn’t damage done to the interior of the library, making sure that there was no lingering smoke or ash in the air was a priority.

The library was closed the day of the fire and the following day, but opened on Wednesday, June 14. The plan was for Service Master to work around library patrons the rest of the week, however, as summer is the busiest time of the year for the library, there were more people in the library than expected.

“It just didn’t work well for the staff and the public bustling around so the County Board (of Commissioners) made the decision to close until the cleaning was done, which took the rest of the week,” Trushenski said.

She commended both the work of the company, and the county’s building maintenance crew and Luke Cyphers for the work they did in cleaning everything up and contacting the proper agencies to get things taken care of.

“Huge thanks to the fire department, which put out the fire fast and the police department, which helped direct traffic,” Trushenski said.

As for the cause of the fire, a tar kettle boiled over and onto the garage. The kettle was for roof work which was scheduled to be done this summer. Trushenski said the roof crew was able to continue working the same day of the fire and that it didn’t delay the project.

“They’re almost done. The top of the roof is done and they’re working on the edging on the sides,” she said.

While the library building itself didn’t sustain damage, the garage door and a nearby window did. Both of those replacements have been ordered and are expected to be here in a few weeks. A few lights by the garage also blew out and have been ordered for replacement.

Trusheski said they’re unsure what the costs will come out to be for the replacements and the cleaning done as not all of the bills are in yet. There is also the matter of insurance to be worked out.

“Everything has to go through the proper channels,” she said.

However, as of now, programming at the library and hours of operation are back to normal.

“We’re thankful it didn’t throw a wrench into anything more than it had to. We’re open and encourage members of the public to come in,” Trushenski said.