Warehouse

As a yellow excavator picked up debris on a grassy field behind what was left of a former paint manufacturing plant, men in hard hats, boots, and T-shirts with law enforcement logos searched for evidence in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood. Wednesday was deja vu for area fire investigators and Camden residents. The fourth major vacant warehouse fire within a month brought back arson teams and law enforcement personnel from the city, county, and state levels. "It's not fun anymore.

Arson investigators from Camden and Philadelphia are looking for clues in the wreckage of the latest warehouse fire in Camden, which broke out Tuesday night. The two-alarm blaze was reported about 9:30 p.m. at the old Clement Coverall Co. plant at Sixth Street and Carl Miller Boulevard in the Centerville neighborhood, officials said. It is the fourth multialarm fire at a vacant warehouse within the last month. No injuries were reported, and the blaze was declared under control around 10:30 p.m. Investigators from the Philadelphia field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with the Camden City Arson Unit and Fire Marshal, are trying to find the cause of the Clement warehouse fire, as well as determining whether the four fires are connected, Camden Fire Chief Michael Harper said.

A fast-moving fire destroyed a vacant South Camden warehouse Saturday, injuring two firefighters but mostly sparing the adjacent block of rowhouses. The eight-alarm fire was the second major Camden blaze in three days. Officials did not know the cause of either. Saturday's fire erupted shortly before 2:30 a.m. at the Howland Croft building, a three-story former garment factory in the 400 block of Winslow Street, just off Broadway. The building had been used to store building materials and computer monitors, Fire Chief Michael Harper said.

NFI, a Cherry Hill trucking and logistics company, bought the Gilbert Co.'s California operations, adding six warehouses that serve the busy ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. NFI did not disclose what it paid, but it said the deal will add about $85 million to its $900 million in annual revenue. NFI employs 5,600 in the United States and Canada.    -Harold Brubaker

A Philadelphia lawyer is facing a mandatory 10-year prison sentence after being convicted of operating a sizable and sophisticated marijuana-growing operation in North Philadelphia. Richard K. Creamer, 38, practiced real estate and corporate law in Northern Liberties. In October 2007, Creamer and James Alberts, a South Philadelphia contractor, bought a warehouse on the 2300 block of North American Street, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph T. Labrum III. Creamer and Alberts, 37, had worked together before, buying distressed properties and selling them for profit.

All 20-plus employees of the Liquor Control Board's warehouse store in South Philadelphia - the state's largest - were dismissed Friday over what the LCB's chief executive called "widespread financial irregularities. " Joe Conti declined Monday to specify the nature of the allegations that followed an internal audit several months ago, pending further investigation. Sources said workers at the low-slung warehouse at 23d Street and Washington Avenue in Point Breeze - at which many of the region's bars and restaurants buy wine and spirits - were suspected of selling products to some regular customers in a fashion that was off the books.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has launched an investigation into operations at its wholesale warehouse on Washington Avenue in Point Breeze, a spokeswoman for the agency confirmed Thursday. No determination has been made on whether anything criminal has taken place, spokeswoman Stacy Kriedeman said. "The PLCB found some financial irregularities during an internal audit at our Philadelphia wholesale store at 23d and Washington," Kriedeman said in an e-mail, declining to provide specifics.

In an escalating race to bring more renewable power to market, GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. on Thursday began erecting what it called the largest photovoltaic rooftop array in North America at its warehouse near York, Pa. The pharmaceutical manufacturer will install 11,000 solar panels over 350,000 square feet - seven football fields - on its sprawling Northeast Regional Distribution Center in Manchester Township. The $14 million project, which relies on a host of tax and market incentives to make it profitable, will also set new standards for solar economics by getting more power out of less space.