CENTERVILLE, Ind. -- Mike Figgins returned to Centerville on Tuesday.

He started his career with 84 Lumber Co. at the Centerville store in 1979.

Now he's a regional vice president for 84 Lumber. He came back to begin the process of resurrecting that same store from the ashes of a devastating fire early Tuesday.

When the job is done, the 84 Lumber Co. at 7138 U.S. 40 W. probably will be bigger and better.

"I have a lot of memories from that building," Figgins said Wednesday, nodding toward the twisted metal and charred wood left behind by the fire.

Figgins and a phalanx of 84 Lumber managers, including the president of the privately held company, Maggie Hardy Magerko, arrived here hours after the fire erupted and before firefighters finished dousing the flames.

There was never any question about rebuilding the store that opened in 1967. The questions the managers were answering on their cellular phones were about how and when to rebuild and what to do until the rebuilding was done.

"This has always been a good location for us," Figgins said.

Resurrection of the store might be too strong a term. Amid the hubbub of firefighting and demolition Tuesday, 84 Lumber was able to meet its commitments to its core customers -- contractors -- with the help of stores located in New Castle and Greenville, Ohio.

On Wednesday a trailer was moved onto the front of the 84 Lumber lot to house offices. Two cargo trailers were parked to store materials that can't be stacked in the sheds that surrounded the main building.

Computer and phones were to be hooked up Thursday. "By Friday, anyone will be able to walk in here and buy lumber," Figgins said.

Most people who visit 84 Lumber aren't looking for one board or a bucket of paint. Figgins estimated builders are 80 to 90 percent of the company's business.

"We'll be able to load the delivery trucks right out of the sheds," Figgins said.

Local employees -- there are eight -- spent two days or more on the phone, "staying in touch with customers who have ordered things," Figgins said. Some workers have gone to Greenville or New Castle to help out with their extra loads.

Meanwhile, Jeff Story, who oversees construction of new stores for 84 Lumber, has been pulling together plans for the building.

"I usually have four or five projects going at one time," he said. Most are new stores. The company has 449 stores in 39 states.

"This one came as a bit of surprise," Story said. It will get priority, "because it's an operating store."

Story said construction, drawing on standard store designs, will take 60 to 90 days from receiving permits.

"It should be quick," Story said. "We don't have much site preparation to do."

The new building will be larger than the one that burned down.

Permits have to be approved at the state level for commercial buildings, and the permit process can't begin until the Indiana State Fire Marshal releases the fire site. That should happen soon.

"We're going to list the cause as undetermined," Deputy Chief Gary Locke of Centerville Fire/Rescue said. "There's nothing suspicious, but we don't know for sure what started it."

Flames already were licking up the sides of the building when firefighters were called at 4:14 a.m. Tuesday. Damages were set at $1 million. Few clues to the origin of the fire were left in the scorched and twisted debris.

It probably will be midsummer before Centerville's 84 Lumber looks something like it did when Figgins worked there in 1979. But until then, the company will go on doing what it did 1979 -- it will sell lumber.

Originally published April 3, 2004