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This story was updated Friday, July 2, 2010.

The warehouse and manufacturing building at 59 S. Carroll St., in Frederick destroyed by fire Wednesday night has witnessed nearly three centuries of the city's history.

Owner Harold "Rusty" Hauver said the building stood on one of the first lots that was laid out in the City of Frederick.

Gil House, an expert in Frederick history, said that older portions of the building — it was constructed in stages through the 1700, 1800s and 1900s — were used by a manufacturer of gunlocks. Gunlocks were the mechanisms in older firearms that allowed the flint to strike steel, causing the spark that ignited gunpowder allowing the weapon to fire, House said.

But it was a spark from a more modern tool that caused the devastating fire that destroyed the building Wednesday night.

"A malfunction" in a first-floor refrigerator caused the blaze that took firefighters about six hours to extinguish, according to Marc McNeal, chief fire marshal for Frederick County.

The building is home to General Engineering Company, a manufacturer of products for underground utilities. The General Engineering building sustained about $2.5 million in damage, according to McNeal.

Hauver said General Engineering purchased the building in the early 1970s. His business is a nationwide retailer of sewer saddles, or connections from plumbing to sewer mains. The company sells to state, federal and local governments, he said.

Hauver said the recession has substantially cut into General Engineering's business, and had the fire occurred in 2007, it would have been much more devastating to the company. "This is our busiest time of the year," Hauver said. "... It would have been a lot harder to make it through."

Hauver said he was working with the city's Department of Economic Development to find property to which he could relocate the sewer saddle manufacturing end of the business. He said he was optimistic about that portion of General Engineering being up and running in a month or less.

Hauver said all three portions of the building are gone, but the adjacent building he owns, at 57 S. Carroll St., sustained only superficial damage. Though he was saddened at the loss of the property, he said the loss of history is the worst part.

"That's what bothers me the most," he said. "This beautiful historic structure just destroyed."

An attached building is rented by the City of Frederick and held equipment for the department of parks and recreation, but no major damage was apparent, according to deputy director Roelkey Myers.

Adjacent roads — East All Saints Street, from South Carroll to Market streets, and South Carroll Street, from Patrick to East All Saints streets — were still closed to all but local traffic Friday due to the fire, according to Frederick city officials.

McNeal said two separate calls came in reporting smoke coming from the building Wednesday night. No one was inside the buildings at the time of the blaze. One firefighter with signs of heat exhaustion was transported in a personal vehicle to Frederick Memorial Hospital.

The roof of the building collapsed and a wall facing 57 S. Carroll St. partially collapsed, McNeal said. The Washington Gas Company and Allegheny Power both had representatives on the scene, who had cut lines into the building.

He said about 25 fire companies were represented at the site, including several from Carroll County. A total of 75 firefighters responded to the three-alarm blaze, according to Michael Dmuchowski, spokesman for the Frederick County Office of the Fire Marshal.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.