KINGWOOD — The cause of a fire that destroyed the administration building of a former youth drug treatment center is under investigation.
The Olympia Center, located off W.Va. 7 west of Kingwood, has been closed for several years. The buildings are privately owned and not occupied currently.
Four volunteer fire departments spent five hours at the scene Monday at the second fire at the structure over the weekend. Firefighters estimated they put more than 40,000 gallons of water on the fire.
“We deem it suspicious. We know it was suspicious the first time,” Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department (KVFD) Assistant Chief Ethan Rouzee said.
Firefighters were called just before midnight Saturday, Rouzee said.
“It was basically contained to two rooms,” Rouzee said. “Our firefighting crews, with help from Reedsville, did a really good job of containing it, saving the structure. It was still very usable at that point.”
But around 4 a.m. Monday, firefighters were called back to the building.
“We got there and there was fire on the first floor, fire on the second floor and fire coming through the eaves,” Rouzee said.
The buildings of the former juvenile drug treatment facility are located off W.Va. 7 in Manown.
“Due to a lack of fire hydrants in the area — there’s none really close by — there’s one out on Herring Road intersection, there’s one near the Manown Mini Mart intersection, so we requested multiple agencies to help shuttle that water, because we had such a big structure,” Rouzee said.
Albright, Masontown, KVFD and Tunnelton sent tankers and manpower to help. Each tanker hauled 1,000 to 3,000 gallons per trip, and each tanker made about four trips, firefighters said.
The administration building was brick halfway up and then aluminum siding. It was empty except for a few pieces of furniture, Rouzee said. The dormitory building was not damaged by the fires.
The owner came out after both fires and even bought breakfast sandwiches and water at the mini mart for firefighters Monday, Rouzee said. He did not know if the building was insured. No one was injured in the fires.
The Preston County Sheriff’s Department and West Virginia State Police were called on the initial fire as well. The State Fire Marshal is investigating.
The residential addiction treatment center opened as Olympic Center in the 1990s. It was the only adolescent recovery center in West Virginia for many years. Later the name was changed to the Olympia Center. It has been closed for several years.
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