Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 23, 1995 TAG: 9505230116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This time, fire started in the basement and tore through a vacant three-story building next to the American Chemical Co. building at Williamson Road and Bullitt Avenue just before 11 p.m. Monday.
Acting Fire Chief Billy Southall said the fire was suspicious because the building was vacant and a door on the Williamson Road side had been forced open.
The building was fully involved when firefighters arrived. Southall said the three ladder trucks and several engines were on the defensive from the beginning. Their main concern was keeping the flames from leaping to the orange American Chemical building, which Southall feared may still contain flammable chemicals.
At one point, three hoses blasted away at the burning building while two others soaked the American Chemical structure. Though flames rose 30 feet out of the roof, and burning debris floated hundreds of feet in the air, the fire never spread to American Chemical.
Firefighters also had to contend with difficult access to the burning building. With Interstate 581 on one side, the chemical building on another, and Elm Avenue on a third side, all hoses had to be set up in a parking lot on Williamson Road.
Firefighters had to drag their hoses across train tracks still used by Norfolk Southern. Southall said NS had to be contacted to make sure no trains came rumbling through the fire scene. Police also closed the I-581 exit ramp onto Elm Avenue.
David Camper, senior vice president and regional manager of Central Fidelity's financial services division, said his bank manages both the American Chemical building and the building that burned for a woman that owns them. The burned building had been vacant for a long time, and the American Chemical building was vacated a month ago, he said.
According to a Roanoke Times & World-News story in October, the buildings are owned by Georgia Anne Snyder-Falkinham, a Blacksburg commercial and residential developer.
Last fall, Roanoke City Council approved a zoning change that would allow the exterior of the American Chemical building to be sandblasted while the interior was renovated into offices and upscale apartments. The adjacent building, which burned Monday night, likely would be torn down to provide parking.
Monday night's fire was the fourth major blaze Roanoke firefighters have battled since Saturday and the second suspicious one in a vacant building. Saturday, the Claytor Memorial Clinic was destroyed by a fire that investigators suspect was arson.
Between May 6 and 9, six suspicious fires occurred in Roanoke, including one in Old Southwest that killed a woman. That fire is now being investigated as an arson-homicide.
Southall was reluctant to link the recent suspicious fires to each other or to this one.
"It looks kind of rough right now, though," he said.
by CNB