Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 22, 1995 TAG: 9505230053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM AND JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Assistant Fire Marshal Bob Meyer said he found a couple of places - more than a hundred feet apart - where the fire had started. He said he also found evidence that someone had broken into the building through a window.
Meanwhile, Roanoke police entered the investigation, talking to neighborhood residents about the fire, Meyer said.
The fire started about 8:30 p.m. Saturday and burned for about an hour, heavily damaging the second floor of the clinic and destroying a building that adjoined it.
Walter Claytor, a member of the family that owns the building, in the 400 block of Gainsboro Road, said the owners had planned to demolish a portion that had housed the J.A. Assaid store and more recently the Refuge Temple Church, because the city had condemned the property. They had planned to rent or sell the remainder.
In the wake of the fire, the owners were determining the extent of their insurance coverage, he said.
The fire destroyed medical and dental equipment, including Claytor's dental chair and X-ray machine, as well as patient records and office furnishings, he said. The goods belonged to businesses no longer using the building, including the Claytor Memorial Clinic, which closed a year ago.
Claytor still was estimating the extent of the damage.
Just a block away from the clinic stands the fragile shell of the old First Baptist Church, which burned April 22. Last week, two boys, ages 16 and 11, confessed to breaking into the church with some gasoline and setting it ablaze.
With the clinic fire, yellow police tape surrounds nearly two blocks in one of Roanoke's oldest neighborhoods. People from the area passed the clinic's remains in cars and on foot. Some took pictures.
"I remember when this whole area down here was real alive," said Gainsboro resident L.N. Reed as he panned his pointing finger from Patton to Gilmer avenues. "It's kind of dead now."
Two other buildings owned by the Claytor family once stood in that same two-block area. The family's 22-room home place and the Claywood Service Station are long gone, also destroyed by fire.
Reed and another Gainsboro man agreed it was sad to see the clinic in ruin.
"The grief from the church fire hadn't even settled yet," Reed said.
by CNB