March 16, 1961 — Two small buildings at the Virginia Oak Tannery were considerably damaged by fire yesterday morning. Quick work of the Luray Fire Department and Tannery employees prevented the flames from spreading to other Tannery property.
The fire apparently was caused by grass burning operations on the west side of the buildings which got out of control and spread to one of the buildings.
The building most damaged was an old frame structure which was used to store old and broken equipment. The other building was a small cinderblock structure used to screen hair from the Tannery waste. The composition roof of this building ignited from the fire in the other building and was considerably damaged. The interior was not harmed.
The quick work of the Tannery’s own firefighting unit and the Luray Fire Department confined the blaze to the two structures involved.
Only about 20 feet of space separated the big beam house from the burning buildings and quite fortunately the wind was not blowing in that direction at the time.
~ From the public archives of the Page News and Courier
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