THE FOLLOWING STORY, AND PHOTOS, ARE BY BILL PICKETT
An investigation is underway into the cause of a blaze that threatened a block long area of Westville’s downtown area this (Wed Nov 20th) morning. The blaze gutted a two story vacant building, which is attached to several other buildings along the east side of Route 1. Westville Fire Chief Mark Ames described what firefighters found when they first arrived on the scene….
{AUDIO: “First arriving engine found heavy fire from all windows and doors on the second floor of this building. It was understood to be a vacant building, however there may have been a squatter living in the apartment at the time of the fire.”}
Years ago, the building that burned was the Our Place tavern. Chief Ames noted the building that burned is in the middle of the block in Westville’s downtown area….
{AUDIO: “It was an excellent stop. The members train hard for this and they deployed very tactfully and were successful today in holding this fire to the building of origin. It certainly could have cost us the entire downtown had the conditions not been met.}
Some buildings just south of the one that was gutted in the fire are owned by B & B Construction. Brandon Bott, CEO of that company, says work continues on renovating those vacant structures….
{AUDIO: “It’s going good. I mean we’re spending a lot of money. We’re trying to keep the buildings, trying to re-do them so we can get office space in the bottom – and in the top two floors going to put residential back in.”}
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Chief Ames says Westville Firefighters had a lot of good help in battling the blaze…
{AUDIO: “We had ten agencies with twenty-eight members here, plus Arrow EMS standing by for us. Everything from the utility companies to all the members – they worked excellent as a team. They came together. As you well know it could have been a whole lot different on a Wednesday morning.”}
Danville Fire Department was one of those that sent equipment to help contain the fire.
Route 1 traffic had been detoured around the fire scene, but is now open again.
