One of county’s last used bookstores destroyed in Monday morning fire
OAKLAND TWP — One woman was flown to West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh after her apartment caught fire above one of the county’s last used bookstores early Monday morning, April 14.
The call came in around 2:37 a.m. for a structure fire in the 200 block of Oneida Valley Road, according to Oneida Valley Volunteer Fire Company Chief Gary Wulff. He said an elderly woman living in one of the upstairs apartments sustained burns, but was out of the building before crews arrived.
Wulff said one bigger explosion and two smaller explosions were recorded during the fire, the largest due to the woman’s oxygen tank in the apartment. He said the upstairs left apartment was fully engulfed in flames when crews arrived.
Dennis Shook, who lives a couple miles away, said he assumed the thundering explosion was a crash on Oneida Valley Road when he heard it. Shook’s wife owns the used bookstore on the lower level. He said the building and the about 35,000 books inside were a complete loss.
“A lot of people are going to miss it,” Shook said.
Water was still leaking from the ceiling with foam spread around the floor later Monday morning. Wulff said crews were on scene until around 5:30 a.m.
Shook’s wife operated the book store for about 28 years, the most recent 10 in the now-burned location. Shook said the shop ran without a computer, and his wife could still find any book in the store with just its title and author.
Shook and his daughter Rochella Herold said the used bookstore was one of the last in Butler County. The store would receive customers from Cranberry Township, Worthington and Ohio looking for books from their childhood.
Shook said he’s found $100 bills when flipping through books before as most are old and haven’t been read in years. He said his wife received the call around 2:30 a.m. that her bookstore was damaged in a fire. Shook said she was shaken up but couldn’t go to the scene due to her health problems.
The property is owned by Steve Tenny, who owns the nearby Bob’s Auto and Salvage, according to the Butler County Assessment Office. He said the second upstairs apartment had been renovated about a year earlier, but was unoccupied. Tenny was not immediately available for comment.
