Harris Nursery storage building destroyed by fire

TYLER – The Lindale Fire Department said a large storage building at the Harris Plant Nursery was destroyed by a fire on Friday night.

Lindale Fire Department Assistant Chief Troy Pritchard told our news partner KETK that their crews were alerted to a reported fire with multiple reports of explosions and tractors involved at the nursery at around 10:15 p.m. on Friday. When Pritchard arrived at the scene, he said firefighters found a large storage building on fire. According to Pritchard, nearby homeowners reported hearing explosions but didn’t think much of it at first because fireworks were going off for July 4th.

Pritchard said 30 firefighters from Lindale Fire Department and Smith County Emergency Services District #2 responded to the scene to fight the fire. The fire was eventually extinguished after firefighters used over 60,000 gallons of water to put it out. One firefighter was treated for heated exhaustion at the scene and released.

Smith County ESD #2 officials said water issues at the scene caused them to have to deploy 800 feet of water lines to provide water for fighting the fire.

Harris Nursery said their retail store wasn’t harmed by the fire, which was contained to their wholesale farm.

“As many of you have heard, there was a fire last night at our wholesale farm. Our retail store (Highway 69N) was not harmed & we are open regular business hours,” Harris Nursery said. “7 days a week, 8:00am-7:00pm. We greatly appreciate all the support & prayers from our community.”