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CAT Tracks for September 4, 2009
DOWNTOWN FIRE IN CAIRO |
All kinds of catty commentary leap to mind...
Bottom line...our lucky streak of no injuries or fatalities continues.
Also, just in time for Labor Day Weekend...and an influx of alumni and visitors...an eyesore that couldn't get any worse...just got worse.
Maybe during the daylight hours and with the cessation of flames, they will reopen the now brick-blocked street...10th Street from Commercial to Ohio. (As an "on the scene" update to the story below...as of the break of dawn, the building is no longer standing.)
For those of you familiar with downtown Cairo, the building that burned is the two-story brick building on the corner across the street (Commercial) - due east - from the old Rhodes-Burford building. (Fortunately for Cairo Public Utility, this fire created kind of a buffer between it and a whole block of major-sized abandoned buildings due south. One building remains (next to the CPU parking lot), but it would not pose much of a threat and should be easily containable in the event of future fires.)
Just a couple of weeks ago, I went downtown to take "before" pictures in anticipation of the CPU demolition grant. Got the west side of commercial...was going to come back in the afternoon and get the east side. Somehow got distracted from my duties...with the thought in mind that I had plenty of time at the current rate of implementation. Now the Cairo arsonist(s) up and goes to work.
Best laid plans...
From the KFVS TV Channel 12...
Fire tears through downtown Cairo building
CAIRO, IL - (KFVS) Firefighters from multiple departments were called out to a building fire around 9:30 Thursday night in downtown Cairo. The large vacant building at the corner of 10th and Commercial was burning out of control.
Emergency crews from Mounds, Mound City and the Alexander County auxiliary fire departments all responded and helped bring the blaze under control.
As of early Friday morning the building was still standing, but the fire gutted the inside. No one was hurt in this fire and so far, investigators are not releasing information as to what might have caused the fire.
This fire is just the latest in a string of arsons in Cairo. There were two other fires on the 14th and 15th of July.
If you would like to see more pictures taken by Heartland News photographer Rochelle Steffen, please go to the cNews page. Here you can look at pictures and videos from around the Heartland and also post your own pictures and video.
