Birdsboro fire guts 19th-century factory building

The owner of the building and the furniture business it contained estimates damage at a half-million dollars.


By Ron Devlin
Birdsboro, PA -  A 126-year-old Birdsboro factory where scores of seamstresses once sewed American flags for the nation’s bicentennial celebration was gutted by a fire of undetermined origin Saturday.
The fire erupted shortly before 10 a.m. on the third floor of the 19th-century building, once occupied by the Valley Forge Flag Co., at 420 Beacon Street.
It now houses Country Additions Furniture, which restores and manufactures hutches, dining room tables and other country-style furniture.
Vince Suglia of Robeson Township, a furniture craftsman who owns the building and the company, said it contained a fully stocked furniture showroom, a workshop and a stock room.
“It’s a total loss,” Suglia said with a sigh. He estimated damage to the building and its contents at about $500,000.
Fire investigators from the Berks County district attorney’s office combed the ruins late Saturday afternoon. An investigator declined to comment, saying the fire remained under investigation.
A portion of the three-story red brick building, weakened by the fire, will be razed as soon as possible, officials said, fearing it might collapse.
The fire marred the festive atmosphere of a nearby street fair sponsored by the Birdsboro Woman’s Club.
Scott Kulp, deputy chief of Friendship Fire Company in Birdsboro, said firefighters rushed to the scene from an exhibit at the fair in nearby Mainbird Park.
“We were here within minutes and it was already an inferno,” said Kulp, the first to arrive. “Very heavy smoke was pouring from the second and third floors.”
Because of the building’s age and construction, Kulp said, it was on the fire department’s list of fire hazards.
“We knew we’d have our hands full,” Kulp said. “We just kept dumping water on it.”
Birdsboro Police Chief Theo dore R. Roth said a firewall prevented the blaze from spread ing to an adjoining wing of the L-shaped structure. The wing contains paint and chemicals, he said.
“It could have been worse,” Roth said. “We could have had an explosion.”
Suglia, who said the paint was in cans, doubted there would have been an explosion.
Country Additions, Suglia said, was expanding. After four years in the building, he had remodeled the third floor for an unfinished-furniture showroom. Customers arrived to pick up their furniture Saturday, he said, only to see the building in flames.
“Now,” Suglia mused, “it’s all gone.”
He will reopen the business at another location, Suglia said.
Neighbors on a dead-end street near the factory watched in horror as flames shot through the roof and a thick column of smoke rose above the southern Berks County borough.
“There was a whole lot of smoke for the longest time,” said Dawnita Smith, who was visiting her mother a block away when the fire erupted.
About 100 firefighters from Birdsboro and surrounding communities fought the fire for about three hours. About 11:15 a.m., as firefighters were gaining the upper hand, the third floor collapsed into the second floor, Roth said.
Officially, the fire was out by 1 p.m., Roth said. Fearing flare-ups, firefighters remained at the scene for several hours.
B.A. Hoffman, Birdsboro historian, said the factory was built in 1881 by Henry M. Willets, who manufactured children’s shoes. During World War II, it was occupied by a company that manufactured heavy-duty work socks.
Valley Forge Flag Co. was there during the bicentennial in 1976. Hoffman was not sure when it closed.
(Reporter Jason Brudereck con tributed to this article.)
•Contact reporter Ron Devlin at 610-371-5030 or rdevlin@readingeagle.com.