Valley Girl Views: The Bogar Lumber Fire, April 11 1946

On 2:30 Thursday afternoon, April 11 1946, a fire destroyed Bogar Lumber in Selinsgrove.

Luke Bogar, plant manager, was talking to a customer in the office when his father, Victor Bogar ran in to tell him the mill was on fire.

Luke ran to the mill, saw the flames were already out of control, and then ran back to the office to save what records he could. His last act was to close and lock the safe in the office.

Clarance Bogar, a plant foreman and son of Victor, said that flames shot up from a planer motor in the mill. Frank and Clair Swineford, father and son, were operating the machinery at the time. Both escaped without injury.

"Combustable dust" was given as the cause for the rapid spread of the flames. The fire was further fed by shaving sand dry sawdust, and was fanned by a stiff breeze from the west.

The firemen arrived quickly, but the flames were already in the rafters. Workmen reported that it was almost impossible to imagine how speedily the fire spread.

The fire leveled an entire block of buildings, warehouses, and 750,000 feet of lumber. The area destroyed extended form the extension of Spruce street, north to the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, and from Water street east to the shore of Penns Creek.

Thousands of feet of stacked lumber provided fuel for the flames. The heat was so intense it cracked he windows of homes across the street, blistering paint and warping doors.

Firemen experienced "some difficulty" in handling the crowds, as hundreds came to the area to see the blaze. A rope was spread along the west side of Water street to hold back the crowds.

The nearby Ott Plant was evacuated as a precaution, and furniture was removed from nearby homes. The Brick veneer on the Elias Ritter double house opposite the mill was melted. (The home was at the time occupied by Mr & Mrs R. Conrad, and Mrs Margaret Lenning)
The heat was too intense for the firemen to reach the hydrants at the mill. Lines were run from hydrants blocks away.

Utility lines were downed by the fire, and a railroad switch box was burned off.
None of the machinery could be saved. "The tremendous head ruined the entire lot, and by tapping the machines with a hammer, they fell to pieces." Someone tossed four gallons of paint from he office before fleeing the fire. $3,000 in paints was consumed in the flames, along with $2,500 worth of builders hardware. Valuable plans and drawings were also lost.

Fire companies from Selinsgrove, Hummels Wharf, Shamokin Dam, Northumberland, Middleburg and Beaver Springs battled the blaze. It eventually burnt itself out, but the firemen continued to spray water throughout the night, to keep it from flaring up again.

Bogar Lumber was owned by Victor Bogart and his son Luke. Victor moved to Selinsgrove from Port Trevorton in 1927, purchasing the lumber yard from Selinsgrove Lumber in 1929. His partner was his brother, Dr. John Bogar. Later Victor took full control of the firm, along with his sons.

During the war, the planing mill had been devoted to defense production. With the war ended, the mill was operating at full capacity, most of the workers having recently returned from service in the war. "It's big stock, as a time when most lumber yards were depleted, provided plenty of work for the entire region."