The arduous task of cleaning up a maintenance building destroyed by fire at Laurelville Retreat Center will get underway Monday with the help of volunteers and heavy machinery.

“It’ll definitely be messy, dirty work,” said Jeanette Lahm, director of the Mt. Pleasant Township Christian camp retreat.

The center’s maintenance building and much of its contents were destroyed in a large fire Saturday off Mennonite Camp Road.

That took out several vehicles needed for upkeep around the 600 acres, including UTVs, mowers and a tractor, as well as spare air conditioners, table saws and band saws, and $4,000 worth of flooring, Lahm said.

“We still don’t have a dollar figure for our loss,” she said.

No one was hurt.

The center is looking for volunteers to help with Monday’s adult-only cleanup, which will include clearing and hauling away debris and preparing the site for a new building, she said.

The cleanup will start at 8 a.m. and run until 4 p.m., with lunch provided. Parking will be available at the Shenandoah Gymnasium.

Participants must sign up in advance through a Google document posted on the center’s Facebook page.

Robby Emerson, director of maintenance and operations, said volunteers will be sorting through scrap metal and cleaning up the site. He hopes to get a couple thousand dollars from the scrap.

Volunteer help will be a huge boost to his small crew.

“Having these volunteers come out, it’s like weeks worth of our time that it would take,” he said.

Anyone interested in helping should wear safety glasses, work boots and gloves. Any tools that are brought along, such as shovels and rakes, should be labeled with the owner’s name.

Kecksburg fire Chief Adam Krozel said investigators believe a mechanical issue sparked the blaze.

There have been bright spots in the fire’s aftermath, Emerson said.

Two days after the fire, he found in the rubble a key to a dump truck with a plow that still worked. On Wednesday, he pulled another key from the ashes for a dump truck that also still runs.

The center typically sees 20,000 visitors or overnight guests annually who use hotel-style rooms, cabins, cottages and meeting space or attend summer camps and other programming. It was founded as the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center in 1943.

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