Skyline Factory Fire Causes $300,000 in Damages

A malfunctioning fan possibly caused a fire that destroyed a modular home inside an industrial plant in Upper Leacock Township Thursday night.

UPDATE: The factory reopened on Tuesday and production will be back to normal soon.

A final estimate of damage has not been determined for the fire at Skyline Homes, 99 Horseshoe Road, Leola, PA Upper Leacock Fire Company Chief Jared Nolt said Friday.

“It will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said. The fire is not suspicious and may have been caused by a large industrial fan being used to dry the drywall in the home.

Skyline Homes makes campers and manufactured homes.

No one was inside the plant when the 11 p.m. blaze started inside a 28-by-70-foot, one-story home, Nolt said. Flames spread throughout half of the home, which was more than halfway constructed.

The home was a modular home because it only had wheels underneath it to deliver it to the site, Nolt said. Mobile homes stay on a frame and wheels.

The fire call was initially reported as an automatic fire alarm, but was upgraded to a building fire when arriving units saw smoke coming from the building. Damages are said to run more than $300,000,

About 100 firefighters extinguished the fire. They cut holes in the roof and garage doors of the building to vent the heavy smoke.

Firefighters cut up the mobile home into pieces and removed it from the building. Crews remained on the scene until early Friday morning.

No firefighters were injured but the bitter cold made walking around treacherous, Nolt said. “The cold weather made it difficult because water was turning to ice right away.”

Sprinklers and alarms at the plant helped prevent the fire from spreading. Also, firefighters were responding to another fire a mile and a half away and that allowed them to get to the Skyline Corp. fire more quickly, Nolt said.

One modular home was destroyed and two others nearby were damaged in the fire, he said. There is also smoke and water damage throughout the facility.

“It was a very smoky fire,” Nolt said.

Nolt expects the plant will close for at least a few days so it can be cleaned. He did not know how many work there. Skyline officials did not immediately return a phone call for comment Friday morning.

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