ST. CLOUD, Fla. -- A family business that has operated for more than 25 years in Osceola County went up in flames early Thursday morning. Several buildings at the Kempfer Sawmill on Kempfer Road were destroyed in the blaze.

Thursday morning, the damage was estimated at around $1 million. The owner's son said that even though the 8,000-square-foot sawmill and the expensive machinery inside was destroyed as a result of the fire the family has no other choice but to move forward and rebuild.

Thursday morning, there were several piles of lumber and sawdust still burning behind the destroyed building. The St. Cloud Fire Department was taking a defensive approach to the situation and electing not to put the flames out. They wanted to focus on preventing the fire from burning other buildings.

According to a resident who lives in the area, a loud explosion was heard around 2:00am Thursday. They looked out the window and saw large flames.

"When we got here the main flames were coming out of an electrical building over there which has some big transformers and what-not in it running some large electric motors. There was really white or bluish-white flames coming out of it where the real heat was coming from," said Hoppy Kempfer, the owner's son.

An investigator with the State Fire Marshal's Office was on the way to the scene Thursday morning.