A fire in a Pennsylvania Power Co. storage garage early Friday raged for three hours, destroyed five of the utility's trucks and caused close to $1 million in damage, said Clark Fire Chief Gregg Sanford.

The blaze, which a state police fire marshal investigated Friday afternoon, destroyed the garage at the utility's complex at state Route 18 and Lake Road.

No other equipment or buildings were damaged and no one was hurt, said Randy Coleman, area manager for Penn Power.

Three pole-setting trucks, one underground-operations truck and a new bucket truck were lost in the blaze, he said.

One truck without any equipment on it costs about $150,000; some of the equipment costs up to $100,000 per truck, he said.

"The fire department did an excellent job at keeping the fire from spreading," he said. "The insulation on the wires at the back of the building wasn't even damaged."

Work at the complex continued as normal, Coleman said; the fire did not affect residential power supply.

"We have a major catastrophe contingency plan," he said. It allows the power company to quickly shuffle equipment from other sites around the region to get work accomplished on time.

"All our crews were out this morning, doing their scheduled jobs," he said Friday. "We didn't even miss a beat."

To his knowledge, Coleman said, the company has never lost as much equipment at one time.

The fire started at about 12:30 a.m.

Sanford said he saw the glow from the flames as far north as Wynwood Drive in South Pymatuning Township.

He said he drove onto the Penn Power complex, saw the flames and called 911. By the time volunteer firefighters arrived, about a quarter of the building was in flames, he said. "It went really quick."

Thirty firefighters from Clark, Hermitage and Transfer battled the blaze until after 3:30 a.m.

The sounds of the fire caused residents some concern. Barry Winger, who lives on Mercer Avenue in Sharpsville, said he became alarmed when he heard the fire truck sirens.

"And then there were two explosions, and then one more," he said.

After he heard a fourth and then a fifth explosion, he turned on his emergency frequency scanner to see if he could find out what was going on.

A Skyline Drive resident in Hermitage said he also heard the explosions.

The explosions could have been caused as each of the trucks inside the garage caught fire.

No one was at the complex when the fire broke out, Coleman said.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com