ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160067 SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
Fire gutted a long-standing building on North Main Street on Monday, and its owner says the structure likely will be torn down.
The blaze broke out inside the Main Street Barber Shop near the Franklin County Courthouse about 7:30 a.m. It spread quickly through the barber shop and into an auction house that shares the building.
As town firefighters fought the blaze with help from several county fire departments, volunteers carried records from a medical facility next door.
Rocky Mount Police Chief Butch Jenkins said the fire was so intense that it was feared flames would spread to the medical facility.
But firefighters managed to beat down the fire and contain it to the building where it started.
The inside of the barber shop and the auction house, which previously was a skating rink and a movie theater, was destroyed.
An investigation revealed that the fire started near a portable kerosene heater, Jenkins said. A possible problem with an electric heater nearby hasn't been ruled out, but Jenkins said investigators believe the kerosene heater was the cause.
Albert Meeks, the barber who runs the shop, grabbed the portable heater after the fire started and attempted to carry it outside. Meeks' hands were burned, but he suffered no serious injuries, Jenkins said.
A firefighter, Ronnie Wray, suffered chest pains while fighting the blaze. He was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit at Franklin Memorial Hospital on Monday evening.
The owner of the fire-gutted building, John P. Dillon of Rocky Mount, said Monday that he's going to wait for an insurance investigator's report on the fire. But after walking through the building himself, "I think it's probably best to tear it down.
"There's nothing there but four walls," he said.
The brick building, which Dillon said was built in the 1930s, was recently painted and its front was improved as part of a new revitalization effort in the town.
Jenkins said the face lift to the building helped improve the aesthetic value of Main Street. He called the fire "a real blow."
The blaze comes on the heels of a major effort to clean up the town after last week's snowstorms.
"It's been a trying time for public safety entities in this town," Jenkins said.
But police investigator Jackie Hubbard, who had to direct traffic around the fire scene for several hours Monday, did manage to find something positive about the situation.
"It's a good thing the fire didn't happen last Monday," he said. "The snow was so bad that they couldn't get the fire trucks out."
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Franklin County firefighters use aby CNBbucket truck to get water to a hot spot on the second floor of an
old theater building in downtown Rocky Mount after a fire broke out
Monday morning. Officials said that the fire started in the rear of
the barber shop on the right side of the building. color.