Logansport building deemed total loss after massive fire
Brad Oppenheim Published: July 8, 2016, 6:24 pm Updated: July 9, 2016, 9:48 am
LOGANSPORT, Ind. (WLFI) – Flames swept through a Logansport business early Friday morning, leaving everything in its path destroyed.
More than 70 firefighters from seven different departments were called out to Friday morning’s massive fire.
While the flames are out, Logansport lost a piece of the city’s history.
Carlos Bryant lives right across the street from where the building stood, and he said the fire was one of the scariest things he had ever seen.
“Too close for comfort I’ll tell you that much, way too close,” said Bryant. “I saw a whole bunch of fire, big flames. It was intense. Cracked my windows messed my truck up. It was so hot I touched the door you couldn’t touch it.”
Around four o’clock Friday morning, flames ripped through Closson Lumber and Peculiar Treasures building on Erie Avenue.
No one was inside when the fire began and no one was hurt.
The state fire marshal was also called Friday afternoon to investigate the scene.
Logansport Mayor Dave Kitchell said the cause of the fire is still unknown, but this fire was more intense than others.
“It is a major heat fire, it’s a wood framed structure so it obviously burns hot,” said Kitchell.
Bernie Mittica is the fire chief in Logansport and he said crews worked relentlessly to put out the flames.
“We put a lot of big water on it, we had aerials up it’s not here right now but they did a heck of a job,” said Mittica.
The business has been family owned since 1898.
Ed Closson was the owner and had worked at the business his whole life.
He took over the business about a decade ago.
Closson didn’t want to speak on camera, but he said he’s devastated to see the business he spent his whole life around gone in an instant.
Kitchell said he knew Closson and he feels for his family’s loss.
“It’s got to be rough for him because his family spent a lot of their lives in that building,” Kitchell said.
As of right now, there is no estimate on the cost of damages.
Chief Mittica has deemed the building a total loss.
Kitchell said for now, the city will work on getting things back to normal.
“We’ll recover from it it’ll take some time to do it.” said Kitchell. “We are still at the scene and will be at the scene for a while.”
Another fire broke out around 1:45 this morning at the former Richardson’s Cleaners, half a mile away from Closson’s.
Right now, investigators are working to see if the two fires are related.