DOLGEVILLE, N.Y. -- "We make everything from a mini-bat that you might take home just as a souvenir to all the way up through all the playing levels, all the way up through professional player bats," said Rawlings Bat Company Ronald VanderGroef of their Dolgeville operations.

However, the focus on Tuesday morning was on saving one of the buildings involved in the bat-making process. Multiple fire crews were on hand to put out the flames at the saw mill down the road from the main plant.

"We couldn't make an interior attack, except for down on the other end of the building where we were able to stop it completely from destroying the entire structure," said Dolgeville Fire Captain Mike Shepardson.

Shepardson said there were a lot of challenges with putting the fire out and not just because of all of the sawdust and wood chippings.

"It being a steel structure really, a steel building, really inhibits our ability because of the way that the steel holds the heat in," he said. "A glorified barn fire is really is what it is. It's a long battle."

"Number one: there's people that depend on the jobs and two, we depend on the saw mill for the rest of the factory to produce," said VanderGroef.

VanderGroef said inventory will get them through for a short time, but tearing the structure down and rebuilding will be necessary.

"At this point, I would not be concerned if I was an employee," he said. "There's going to be a time frame where things are going to be tough for a little while, but long-term, I would not be concerned at this point. No."

State fire officials are investigating the cause of the fire. 

The Rawlings Bat Factory in Dolgeville makes about 300,000 bats each year.