For an establishment hit by a multi-alarm fire less than 24 hours earlier, Tuesday was about as close to business as usual as it could be at 380 Auction & Discount Warehouse in Murrysville.
With the exception of a work crew attaching plastic sheeting to a greenhouse frame — the only one of four that emerged relatively unscathed after a sizable fire Monday afternoon — most staff members were going about their typical routine.
The frames of the two neighboring greenhouses were blackened by the fire, with a few melted scraps of plastic hanging here and there.
And while the business had recently received a shipment of plants for spring garden sales, the vast majority were not in the greenhouses that caught fire, according to sales manager Matt Beacom.
“We’ll be good to go when people start buying plants,” he said.
People were already doing that Tuesday afternoon, as customers milled around with plastic push-carts loaded with trays of pansies and geraniums.
Beacom said the greenhouse structures — essentially metal pole buildings covered with plastic sheeting — were not covered by insurance. They are a relatively new addition to the business, which dates back to 1965.
“We’ve had them for about the last 10 years,” Beacom said. “We did it before without the greenhouses, we’ll do it again.”
While they haven’t gotten an official cause from investigators, Beacom suspects the fire was electrical.
“We had a machine in one of the greenhouses with a battery that may have gotten too hot,” he said.
He thanked firefighters and EMS crews for their quick response and said concerned calls had been pouring in from customers.
“We’ve gotten call after call with people asking if we’re doing all right, if there’s anything we need,” he said.