UPDATE: 'It's a complete loss': Vendors, owner react following Tollbooth Antiques mall fire
Crews were battling a massive fire in Columbia on Thursday night, with the Tollbooth Antiques warehouse and complex at Chestnut and North Second streets engulfed by flames.
Smoke from the fire was visible from as far away as Hellam in York County and Manheim Township, witnesses said.
“The closer you got, all you saw was black smoke and flames,” Tammy Lyle of Columbia said. She could see it from her home on South Fourth Street. Her sister, Terri Lyle, of East York, saw black smoke from over the river.
"I don’t think there’s an antique left they could even sell," said Josh Cruz of Locust Street in Columbia, a little after 10 p.m. He said he could see the complex engulfed in flames around 8:30 and it took about an hour until the fire lessened.
Flames shot from the Tollbooth Antiques complex in Columbia on Thursday, July 18, 2024, as fire ripped through the building. Smoke from the fire could be seen for miles.
Crews responded to the fire around 8:30 p.m., according to Lancaster County Wide Communications. Dozens of emergency units were on scene, with others on standby into York County and Lancaster Township, as the blaze reportedly spread to include several buildings.
By 9:45, the flames were no longer visible from inside the city, but crowds were gathered around the complex.
Crowds gathered in Columbia as crews fought a massive fire at Tollbooth Antiques on Thursday night.
Tollbooth Antiques was opened in the spring of 2011 by Sue and David Doolittle, according to LNP archives. The 40,000-square-foot warehouse included 36 vendor booths. The Tollbooth building was formerly the Kahn Lucas factory, which produced children's clothing.
The former factory spans nearly a city block with 15-foot-high ceilings, huge windows with natural light streaming in, and the original hardwood floors, Lancaster Farming reported in 2020. It was one of Columbia’s early marketplaces and now features a mix of antiques, collectibles, furniture, vintage, retro, crafts and mid-century modern merchandise. Tollbooth is managed by Vicki Brodfuehrer, who collects primitive antiques and maintains a selling site in Tollbooth, as does Sue Doolittle.
The antiques complex is less than a block from Columbia’s Rotary Park and near Peerless Hardware Manufacturing Company.
Crowds of Columbia residents gathered to watch the crews work, and the Route 462 bridge was closed to traffic at Wrightsville.
Scenes from the Tollbooth Antique Warehouse fire in Columbia, PA
