Crews respond to fire at Westmoreland County country club

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — Emergency crews responded to a fire at a Westmoreland County country club early Thursday morning.

Westmoreland County 911 said crews were called to River Forest Country Club at 4:26 a.m.

The fire, which was at a maintenance building, was under control by 4:45 a.m., dispatchers said.

No one was hurt in the fire.

Groundskeepers arrived around 4 a.m. and started turning on pumps to water the lawn. Shortly thereafter, they noticed the two-story maintenance storage building on fire, according to Chief Matt Rearick of the Markle Volunteer Fire Department.

Rearick said at least 10 companies were called to the scene to stop the fire from spreading to the main building, with several tankers having to bring in water to put out the flames.

“It must have been hot because even the steel beams are bent where the storage shed was. My concern is the golf carts,” said Dennis Horwitz, a country club member and golfer.

The country club’s general manager estimated the damage to be hundreds of thousands of dollars, saying that lawn mowers and more than a dozen golf carts were destroyed, along with other equipment.

“Never had anything close to this for sure…heavy rains and trees down, things like that, but not from a fire standpoint,” said golfer Ron Urso.

The State Police Fire Marshal is leading the investigation into what caused the fire.

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