At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Bucheit said in a press event the fire had been knocked down, the building was unstable, and demolition crews were working to knock down the remaining walls. The fire was contained to one building and no hazardous materials were inside, he said. There were no reports of casualties, Bucheit said.
The city of Hamilton said on social media this section of Dayton Street will likely remain closed through Thursday, and drivers can’t access it from North 6th Street or MLK Boulevard. North 5th Street will also be closed for a period of time.
Flames and black smoke could be seen pouring from all four stories of the building, and heat could be felt from across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Bucheit said that the fire was reported at about 4:30 p.m., and within 10 minutes the building was engulfed. He said that Hamilton emergency crews were on the scene quickly, and they were able to get mutual aid from Fairfield, Fairfield Twp., Liberty Twp. and Ross Twp.
At around 5 p.m., Hamilton Public Safety Director Scott Scrimizzi said that fire crews were fighting the fire defensively, and the top floor and roof had already collapsed.
He said that because the city owns its own water company, they were able to crank up the water pressure to fire hydrants being used to extinguish the fire. All the firetrucks have backed away from the building as more pieces of it collapse to the ground.
“We’re in good shape,” he said. “We just can’t take any chances on anyone getting hurt.”
The city of Hamilton said on social media that there would be power outages around the fire as they shut down circuits for safety reasons.
Scrimizzi said that the train tracks passing by the building were shut down until the building comes down, whether by itself or with a demolition company. He said that the city will have an emergency demolition crew coming and they hope to have it down in the next 12 hours.
The demolition crew arrived on scene at around 6:40 p.m.
He praised the water department, saying they did a great job getting them as much pressure as needed.
Crews will likely be putting water on the building overnight until it comes down, Scrimizzi said, adding that they hope that it won’t fall onto the train tracks, which would delay them being reopened.
The building was on the southern part of the property most known for the Beckett Paper Company used primarily for warehousing and storage of paper produced by the company at the northern end of the property. It’s also believed there were offices in this building.
Bucheit said that the building was vacant, and there was an order not to enter in place. He said there was an ongoing development agreement for the site, but the building is owned by the city. The building had no utilities, and the city manager said that there were no plans to develop it, so the building would likely be knocked down anyway.
The cause of the fire was still unknown, Bucheit said, though investigators would be looking at the possibility the fire was intentionally set.
“We’ll know more when the when the smoke clears” and the investigation can begin, he said.
Bucheit said that the building was vacant, and there was an order not to enter in place. He said there was an ongoing development agreement for the site, but the building is owned by the city. The building had no utilities, and the city manager said that there were no plans to develop it, so the building would likely be knocked down anyway.
The cause of the fire was still unknown, Bucheit said, though investigators would be looking at the possibility the fire was intentionally set.
“We’ll know more when the when the smoke clears” and the investigation can begin, he said.
