December 29, 2000

Fire Destroys Apartments On 6th Avenue

A Firsthand Account By Mary South

At approximately 10 p.m. I smelled smoke and looked out my door to see a tall column of smoke rising from someplace east-southeast of my location. I jerked on my boots, leashed the dog and walked there immediately. The old stone apartment building located behind the Christian bookstore on 7th Street and 6th Avenue and the apartment building just west of the bookstore on 6th Avenue was on fire. I found a perfect view of the fire from behind a parking lot for a law office. The wooden privacy fence blocking the foreground was backlit by the fire, which was just getting really going. A Cabell County EMS ambulance left the scene from 6th Avenue, turned down 6th Street and headed east on 7th Avenue. At first it seemed that the fire engines had not started pumping, then it became apparent that the only water it was receiving was from 7th Street. The awkward and hidden position of the apartment building located centrally behind other buildings on all sides delayed the watering of the fire. It kept blazing higher and brighter as it caught hold of the building. Several cars were parked in the parking lot of the law office watching the fire. More people came on foot and in vehicles to watch the blaze. The updraft carried embers past where I stood, and soon water was being sprayed so heavily against the neighboring apartment building that a fine sleety rain began to fall. Another engine came down 6 1/2 alley and finally got water spraying at the west side of the building. Before it started pumping, though, the fire built to a huge yellow blaze with much less smoke than when it was starting.

Local News HNN Home T. Michael Murdock, HNN News Editor