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| AKpilotEMT @ 2006-05-18 17:06:26 | |
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The building was on fire today. I flipped for a few minutes between national TV news broadcasts (CNN, etc) who were showing aerial (news helicopter) footage of firefighters on the roof and water cannons on the ground trying to shoot up towards the fire, some getting close, some not even close at all because the building is so tall! Posted on Thu, May. 18, 2006 Firefighters battle Akron Airdock blaze Beacon Journal staff report Akron firefighters appear to have a fire at the Akron Airdock under control, according to witnesses, fire and company officials. By 12:30 p.m., the fire was looking pretty much contained, said Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Kate Dunlap, who is at the airdock. The fire appears to have been primarily on one side of the two northeast doors, she said. It also appeared that as of 12:30 all of the fire damage was on the exterior, Dunlap said. Contractors were working inside the airdock when the fire started, but all were evacuated safely, she said. A cause for the fire has not yet been determined. The historic airdock is owned by Lockheed Martin and is where the company plans to make the $149.2 million prototype High Altitude Airship. The mammoth building is being renovated for construction of the Lockheed Martin airship. Airship construction is scheduled to start in 2007. Akron Fire Department spokesman Ed Sturkey said at 12:15 p.m. that smoke and flames continued to shoot from the building. Firefighters continued to pump water from aerial ladders. He said between 15 and 20 Akron fire companies were on the scene. Other eyewitnesses confirmed that as of noon, flames were still visible. The fire is in the "upper, outer north side of the building,'' Sturkey said. He said a blimp did not appear to be involved in the fire. Sturkey said he could not estimate how much of the structure was involved. Sturkey said there were no injuries. Aerial ladders were being used to pump "master streams'' of water on the structure, he said. Firefighters could be seen on the roof of the structure, aiming hoses down at the flames. It appeared that ground-based hoses were unable to reach the higher flames. The fire drew hundreds of spectators, clogging nearby parking lots. Helicopters and other small aircraft crowded the sky overhead, witnesses said. Tonia Lawley of Springfield Township said she was driving past the airdock with a friend about 11:10 a.m., saw a section of the airdock had caught fire and pulled her vehicle over near Akron Municipal Airport to watch what was happening. "The whole one end of the airdock is in flames,'' she said, speaking on her cell phone shortly after arriving at the scene. "It's like flames are racing up the whole side, with a lot of black, billowing smoke. The Fire Department wasn't even there when I first called (the Akron Beacon Journal).'' She said she could not tell if there were injuries, or if the structure had been evacuated. "You could see people standing out at the base area (of the structure), looking up at the flames,'' said Lawley, a Beacon Journal employee. "It was like a long, narrow section (of flames) that was racing up the side of the building, almost like you see in the movies when they put the match to the trail of gasoline and there's like a long, skinny line of fire. It was racing up the side like that, from the base to the top.'' She said she saw the first firefighters and trucks arriving at the scene about 11:20 a.m. Beacon Journal columnist David Giffels said he was watching the firefighting effort shortly after noon from the parking lot of the old Cafe Piscatelli restaurant on the grounds of Akron Municipal Airport. "I guess I'm looking at it from the north side. The back end that faces Triplett Boulevard, the one whole side of it, the upper half, is open flames and thick smoke is coming off of it,'' Giffels said. "So, basically, a quarter of that back end that butts up against Triplett Boulevard is in flames.'' One of the problems that Giffels said he could see, about 12:05 p.m., was the height of the structure. "Their ladders and hoses can't reach it,'' he said. "They're not able to spray on top. They're spraying, but it's not getting up to the main part of the fire.'' However, by 12:20 p.m. from Giffels' vantage point, he said the flames he saw minutes before were under control and that spectators were starting to leave. Bill Geary, 75, of the Firestone Park area of Akron, said he has been a resident of the city since 1932. He said he was napping on a couch at home when a friend called him with news that the airdock was on fire. Geary said he immediately threw on some clothes and rushed to the scene. Watching the firefighting effort with binoculars from the steps of the old Cafe Piscatelli restaurant, Geary shook his headmournfully at the sight. "That's a historical thing,'' he said. "That's been here as long as I can remember.'' Vicki Schlessner of Goodyear Heights was in the same area, taking photos of the scene with her digital camera. She also said she knew she had to get there to see what was happening. "I saw the black smoke and I knew it was big,'' Schlessner said. Karen Kilroy of Akron was nearby in the Piscatelli's parking lot, shooting video of the scene. She said she wanted to document the sight so that she could put it on her Web site, http://Akron.TV, about Akron historical themes. Alex Reynolds, a student at the University of Akron, watched from an abandoned parking lot north of the airport as firefighters battled the blaze. He spotted firefighters on the roof of the structure and ladder trucks spraying from below. He said the fire seemed to be under control by 12:30 p.m. But from other vantage points, flames were still visible. Lawley, who initially called the newspaper with her account of the fire about 11:10 a.m., said she had driven her vehicle to a different vantage point on George Washington Boulevard about 12:30 p.m. She said it appeared a pumper truck was having problems getting the water to reach high enough. "They've put a couple of people on the roof, above the fire, to shoot water down, but you can't really tell how they're getting the water to those people,'' Lawley said. "From this angle, you can still see some small (areas) of flames.'' Lawley said traffic was lined up "everywhere'' on George Washington Boulevard, watching the firefighting effort. "All of those businesses that are on Triplett, where George Washington meets Triplett, all of those parking lots are filled with cars. And down by the state park near Derby Downs, there are cars everywhere,'' Lawley said. © 2006 Beacon Journal and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/14611013.htm |
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