THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220318
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
City officials hope to return business to normal as soon as possible after a suspicious fire created extensive smoke and water damage at the annex of the City Hall building early Wednesday.
The fire, set in three places in the two-story building that houses the Police Investigators Division and the Finance Department, was started just before 3:19 a.m., officials said.
An accelerant was used to speed the spread of the fire, but an alarm in the building prompted a quick response from the fire department, Police Chief H.L. Bunch said.
``We're treating it as a potential criminal investigation,'' Bunch said. The State Bureau of Investigation is heading the investigation, officials said, assisted by the Elizabeth City police and fire departments.
An insurance adjuster from the League of Municipalities examined the scene Wednesday but did not pin down a dollar loss.
``The damage is not that extensive, but they don't have a cost figure at this point,'' City Manager Steven Harrell said.
Bunch said ``there was some loss'' from police offices on the ground floor but that the extent had not been determined. The eight employees of the investigative division and neighborhood interdiction teams have moved to an undisclosed site, he said.
``In terms of the services that we offer, we have not missed a beat and will not,'' Bunch said.
Harrell said the Finance Department lost only some older files. Three closets and an electrical panel received the most damage, he said.
``The only damage in the offices is just horrendous smoke on the walls and on the floor,'' Harrell said. ``There is no damage to the finance operation itself. The Finance Department folk have just kind of moved over into this building.''
Both paychecks and vendor checks are usually distributed Friday after printing on Thursday, Harrell said. He said it was likely that the checks would be issued on schedule.
The annex connects to the east side of the A. Parker Midgette Municipal Building on the second floor and has entrances in the front and rear. It is regularly locked and had been locked overnight, officials said.
``The building was secured this morning (Wednesday) at the time the fire was discovered,'' Bunch said.
The fire was set in two places on the first floor, and in one spot on the second floor, he said. He would not elaborate on where or how the fire was started.
Fire officials arrived about five minutes after the alarm activated, Elizabeth City Assistant Fire Chief Billy Pritchard said.
Twenty-three firefighters responded, all from the city, Pritchard said. Both fires were extinguished within a half-hour, but crews remained until 7:23 a.m. to blow smoke out windows and begin a cleanup.
Officials said the damage probably would have been about the same if the city had a fire station downtown. The city currently has only one fire station, on Halstead Street.
``You got to take into consideration 3 o'clock in the morning,'' Pritchard said, adding that the light traffic assisted the speedy response time. ``Had it been during the day, it could have been a totally different story.''
Operations appeared to be running as usual in the main building of city hall, aside from emergency lights occasionally flashing on walls and power cables running out the front door and into the annex.
Officials said they hoped to have power restored to the annex by late Wednesday or early today. ILLUSTRATION: Color PHOTO BY A. MACK SAWYER
Investigators discuss the fire at the City Hall annex Wednesday in
Elizabeth City. An accelerant was used to spread the fire.
KEYWORDS: FIRE SUSPICIOUS ARSON by CNB