A Tuesday morning fire at a l umber company destroyed a wood-drying kiln but caused no bodily injuries nor spread to other property.

The blaze at the Beadles Lumber Co. site at 900 Sixth St. N.E., was reported at 6:18 a.m., with firefighters at the scene until about 2 p.m. The fire department was called back to the scene at 9:10 p.m. when a passerby saw flames that had flared back up; firefighters stayed until about 10:30 p.m. that time.

The fire was under control about an hour after the initial call, but Moultrie Fire Department personnel stayed on the scene to wet down the still smoldering lumber. Finding the kiln fully ablaze, the firefighters attacked it with ladder trucks before moving in on foot, fire officials said.

Victor Beadles said that the kiln, the oldest in operation and built in the 1970s, was a near total loss, but that the effect on production will be minimal if any. The other two kilns, which have excess capacity, will continue operation, and if necessary some wood will be dried at Balfour Lumber Co. in Thomasville, also owned by the company.

There had been previous fires at the kiln but none of this magnitude.

“Normally we have a sprinkler system and alarm and they attack it right quick,” Beadles said. “Something went wrong with this one. We’ve had some fires in there and have been able to control them.”

The company plans to build a new kiln at a cost of about $1 million, he said.

A mill has been in that location since the 1950s, and Beadles has owned the operation since the 1960s, he said.