Nov 25, 2016 2 min read

When Avella Volunteer Fire Department Chief Eric Temple arrived at Cross Creek County Park on Thanksgiving, one of the pavilions was ablaze “from end to end.”

By the time rescue trucks arrived, everything – including every picnic table, the shingled roof and attached solar panels – was engulfed.

“It’s definitely destroyed,” Temple said.

A boater on Cross Creek Lake on Thursday noticed the fire around 2:30 p.m. and called Washington County 911.

Temple was the first responder on the scene. He said no one was around when he arrived.

In addition to Avella, fire departments from Slovan, Mt. Pleasant Township and West Middletown responded.

Because of the weight of the solar panels, Temple instructed his crew to stay back from the roof. The panels threw sparks, but the fire was extinguished in about an hour.

“(The fire) was really hot. It made chips on the concrete,” Temple said. “But we worked well together and knocked it down really fast.”

The shelter, on the Route 50 side of the park, was described as “one of the newer ones” by Washington County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if it had to be totaled. There was a lot of damage,” he said.

Maggi, a former state trooper who was a state police assistant fire marshal for a short time, said the fire is being investigated by proper authorities, as all structure fires are to be referred to a fire marshal.

A sheriff’s deputy was present and Jeff Donahue, Washington County superintendent of recreation, was sent to the park.

Maggi said it is believed a fireplace ember ignited a rafter, and he did not know if those who were inside the shelter held a permit.

The park is owned and maintained by the county, which contracted in summer 2014 with Energy Independent Solutions of Robinson Township, Allegheny County, to construct a closet in the shelter to house the equipment for the solar panel inverter and associated wiring, bringing the total cost to $52,500.

Oil and gas revenues from the park paid for the American-made solar panel project, and two years ago this month, the board of commissioners chose Knollwood Energy as the broker to sell credit for excess power generated by the solar panels. Knollwood retains $5 per credit.