Fire levels Seville warehouse

SEVILLE — An early-Sunday morning fire ripped through a storage facility used by Seville Bronze at 22 Milton St. The building was unoccupied at the time of the blaze, which was reported to the Seville-Guilford fire department at 1:48 a.m. and extinguished about two hours later. Fire Chief Brad Winter said no injuries have been reported among responders from nine firefighting agencies who assisted at the scene. Damage to the building resulted in a total loss but flames did not spread to any nearby structures. "Everyone there from a lot of different departments worked very well together to get things under control," Winter said. "There was a big loss of inventory and equipment." A cause has not yet been determined and further investigation has been turned over to the State Fire Marshall's Office. "While everything is still under investigation, it does look like some type of accident," said Seville Bronze president Tim Steele. "Something may have just smoldered and caught on fire over the weekend. We're just thankful that no one was in there and no one got hurt. The first responders did a great job and we're very grateful for them." Steele added that the businesses plans on restarting production today. "We'll certainly have some hurdles in the short term as far as getting stock back in here," he said. "But I'm confident that our team will get things going. They're doing a great job as we speak." Seville Bronze encompasses three buildings in the Milton Street area, including a foundry and machine shop located across the street from where the fire took place. The business has operated in Seville since 1953 and employs roughly 70 people. Fire departments who provided mutual aid included Wadsworth, Rittman, Medina, Lodi and Lafayette, Canaan and Sharon townships. Medina Life Support Team stayed on scene to help with any possible firefighter injuries. Winter also thanked Seville police, the Medina County Sheriff's Office, local utility companies, the Medina County All Hazard Drone Team, and Medina County Fire Investigation Task Force for their assistance. Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.