By Matthew Marx
The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
Copyright 2006 The Columbus Dispatch
All Rights Reserved
Columbus firefighters spent hours letting flames consume an abandoned building at the old Columbus Coated Fabrics complex in the 1200 block of N. Grant Avenue last night.
“We don’t want to risk any lives for the property because it isn’t safe,” said Fire Capt. Kevin Reardon, who described the effort as a “controlled burn to some degree,” containing the damage to one graffiti-covered, two-story brick building near the corner of Grant and E. 7th Avenue.
It was the second fire in the abandoned plant yesterday. The cause was undetermined, Reardon said. Firefighters estimated that more than 20 fires have occurred there since the plant closed in 2001.
The blaze began after 7 p.m. and was expected to burn until early this morning.
“That’s not good for our air quality,” said Shaun Gunnell, 19, of 1291 N. 6th St., as he watched from his front porch. “It’s crazy to let the fire burn all night.”
The risk of the structure collapsing is too great, Reardon said, for firefighters or anyone else to go inside. Police officers at the scene were happy to see one less deathtrap to chase homeless and teens out of.
Flames sent huge, twisting plumes of smoke and glowing embers into the sky, attracting the curious from miles around.
From his vantage point on High Street in the Short North, Nicholas Decker wondered whether he would hear tornado sirens for two nights in a row as he saw what appeared to be a low, dark funnel cloud.
“It looked like storm clouds at first,” said Decker, 19, who followed the traffic, then got out of his car to join onlookers on N. 6th Street.