DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997               TAG: 9703110289

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, correspondent 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   48 lines

FIRE GUTS AREA MILLWORK PLANT AT BUSY TIME; COULD BE ARSON

Officials say arson apparently was the cause of a fire that gutted Precision Millwork Inc. early Monday, destroying more than $1 million in lumber and high-tech machinery.

A passerby on U.S. Highway 17 called 911 about 1 a.m. after seeing flames coming from the back of the 21,000-square-foot plant about two miles south of Elizabeth City in Southside Plaza.

Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright said a trained dog sniffed out a flammable liquid that may have been used to set the building on fire. An investigation is continuing, he said.

The fire apparently started in wooden pallets stacked beside the building or inside the structure, said Eugene Rountree Jr., chief of the Inter-County Fire Department.

This was the largest fire in Pasquotank County since The Shady Lady burned in March 1994, Rountree said.

The Shady Lady, a nightclub just north of Precision Millwork, was destroyed when firefighters ran short of water. The owners sued Elizabeth City over what they claimed was negligence. The city was not held liable in that case.

Rountree called in several other departments to help at Precision Millwork. Sixty firefighters with nine tankers and three pumpers responded.

``Every time we sent lines in, I added another tanker truck to the rotation,'' said Rountree, who has been chief for three years. ``We were not going to run out of water. All I could think about was The Shady Lady.''

Firefighters battled to keep the fire from spreading to a front room where flammable lacquer and thinners were stored. And 100 feet from the flames sat dozens of tanksof propane gas owned by AmeriGas.

The firefighters brought the blaze under control about 2:30 a.m. and extinguished it by 7 a.m., Rountree said.

Precision Millwork owner Richard Winslow stood outside the warped and darkened metal building Monday morning while an arson dog from the State Bureau of Investigation sniffed through the charred interior. ``We have to be back up and running as soon as possible,'' Winslow said. ``This is our busiest season. We've got $2 million worth of work out there due in the next four months.''

The building is insured, he said.

Precision Millwork, founded in 1983 by Winslow, employs 25 people and specializes in commercial architectural millwork with projects all over eastern North Carolina. Winslow said he probably would rebuild at the same site. KEYWORDS: FIRE ARSON NORTH CAROLINA

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