A fire late Monday destroyed a truss production building at Walker Brothers Ltd. Building Materials in Baileyton.

The fire, which was first reported around 8:45 p.m. Monday, destroyed a 60’ x 150’ truss production building at the Walker Bros. lumber yard. The lumber yard is located east of Alabama Highway 69, just off Schoolhouse Road in Baileyton.

Favorable winds prevented the fire from spreading to a fully-stocked lumber storage building of similar size, even though that facility stands only 30 feet from the burned building.

There were no employees at the site when the fire began, and there were no reports of injuries. No other structures at the property were damaged.

“Fortunately, the wind was blowing toward the highway, which prevented it from getting into the lumber shed,” said Walker Bros. co-owner Alan Walker Tuesday morning.

“We did lose all the equipment that was in the building. But we were fortunate. The responders who came got here quickly, and I have to give them credit — they do a good job.”

Responders from the Fairview, Joppa and Baileyton fire departments extinguished the fire, which took roughly three hours to contain. Embers and a few lingering flames still smoldered at the site Tuesday.

Alan Walker said the fire has temporarily displaced eight full-time employees who worked in the 30 year-old truss building. But the company expects to move quickly to rebuild, and to continue to fulfill orders for wooden trusses for local residence and farms.

“We’ll build back,” he said. “We hope to be back in a couple of weeks after some modification. We’re already looking for saws and components to begin putting everything back.

“We had just completed one [truss] order that was still on the loading rack, but the wind didn’t touch that, so we were able to save it. We were fortunate to catch it when we did. My brother spotted it from his daughter’s house, which is close by. And we had someone who saw it from the highway, as well.”

Walker brothers has been a fixture in the Baileyton community for more than 50 years. “We started out with my grandfather’s grocery store that moved here in 1949,” said Walker. “My dad [Cee-Buck Walker] and uncle came over and started this side of things in the late 1950s.”

Alan Walker now operates the business alongside his two brothers, Tim and Terry Walker.

No cause had been identified by officials Tuesday, but Walker said he believes an electrical short may have started the fire.

Benjamin Bullard can be reached at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 145.