Thick, black smoke, visible for miles, filled the late eveningsky Monday as firefighters battled a huge blaze at the PhillipsBark Processing plant on County Farm Road.

“It’s devastating,” said Mike Elliott, a 31-year heavy equipmentplant employee, as he watched flames and smoke flow from a buildingon the plant site.

The fire was reported at 5:55 p.m., said Lincoln County SheriffSteve Rushing.

Firefighters from all eight Lincoln County volunteer firedepartments, the city of Brookhaven and surrounding areas continuedthe fight to contain the fire past 8 p.m.

“We’ve got several (fire departments) from out of county …anyone who could respond,” Rushing said.

Units were expected to be on scene well into the night. Lawenforcement shut down County Farm Road around 8:30 p.m.

Company president David Phillips, his brother Bill, and son Jeffsat on a mound of processed bark material as firefighters andequipment moved around the property in the firefighting effort.

David Phillips said the fire started in the water pump area ofthe plant. He was hopeful the plant’s processing unit could besaved.

“We can continue to ship material if we can save the processingfacility, which I think we’ll be able to do,” Phillips said.

Phillips expected the packaging aspect of the business to bedown six to eight weeks. With available supply already prepared, heanticipated shipping could resume quickly and the processing lineto be operational by the end of the week.

“It won’t affect our shipping for about two weeks,” Phillipssaid.

See Tuesday’s edition of The DAILY LEADER for more informationon Monday’s fire.