by matthew moriarty: Staff Writer

Fire gutted a furniture business on U.S. 1 in Aberdeen Wednesday afternoon.

Express Liquidators was stocked with furniture but was not yet open.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Aberdeen Fire Chief Tom Brock told The Pilot Thursday morning that there were some unusual circumstances that fire investigators are looking into, but he declined to elaborate.

Firefighters got the call around 3:30 p.m. The building is near the intersection of U.S. 1 and N.C. 5. Firefighters had to block off both southbound lanes of U.S. 1 to create space for the many fire trucks and ambulances that responded.

The Aberdeen and Pinehurst Rescue Squads responded, but no one was injured. In addition, firefighters managed to save much of the furniture inside.

Firefighters from Aberdeen, Crestline, Southern Pines, Pinebluff, Pinehurst, Vass, Whispering Pines and Seven Lakes, as well as Moore County Emergency Services, responded.

“Basically, we had this whole end of the county out here,” Brock said.

Firefighters worked on suppressing the blaze until 8 p.m., but they had the fire under control about an hour after they arrived.

The building still smoked and smoldered as firefighters poured in and out carrying chairs, tables and framed pictures of American flags and bald eagles that have become so popular in the wake of Sept. 11.

The fire still had traffic clogged as rush-hour traffic began, and it took some as long as half an hour to get through Aberdeen on U.S. 1.

Fire investigators stayed on the scene until after midnight, sorting through the debris.

According to some reports, the fire started in the roof of the building. Firefighters used a chain saw to cut a hole in the front of the building above the front door and a few feet below the roof that allowed then to fire high-pressured water directly onto the problem spot from a hose on the fire truck’s ladder.