Multiple fire departments were called to help battle a massive fire early Friday morning at a vacant building in the City of Butler.
The fire broke out around 3:20 a.m. at the three-story boarded-up former Elliot Furniture building near the intersection of South Cliff Street and Center Avenue, on the South Side neighborhood of Butler.
Numerous fire departments from all around the county were requested to help battle the blaze. When our reporters got on scene around 5 a.m., flames could still be seen roaring out of the building. Around that same time part of the roof collapsed in the building.
Butler City Fire Chief Chris Switala told our newsroom, “We quickly pulled crews out of the building and began setting up for defensive operations and so we began then to remove some of the boarded up openings so we could access the fire and we fought the fire largely with aerial apparatus and large flow master streams from the ground.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Although the building was unoccupied, a residence close by did have some damage.
“It was a two unit apartment building that was adjacent to it. It had water damage, minor smoke damage, just more smoke odor. The amount of water damage wasn’t extensive, but it did affect the electrical systems so we did have to have electric to that building disconnected. Those residents are displaced and the Red Cross is assisting the residents from those units,” Switala explained.
Traffic restrictions are expected to remain in place as long as an emergency demolition of what is left of the building is ongoing.
