Scott's blog

On Wednesday, February 13th at about 8pm, a fire started in a vacant historic house next door to Treasure City at 1706 East 12th Street. By 8.30pm it was a 2-alarm fire with about 10 fire trucks and 40 fire personnel in attendance. The prevailing winds pushed flames west into a second building occupied by the NAACP, Mount Carmel Masonic Lodge and Linder Insurance. Damages to both buildings, which are owned by the Mount Carmel Masonic Lodge, were estimated to be at least $100,000

More photos here: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

The Yellow Bike Project, whose shop was less than 6 feet from the fire was untouched and Treasure City sustained only minor smoke and water damage, that was cleaned up by Thursday afternoon. This is the fourth fire in the proximity since we opened in October 2006. The third fire caused serious damage to the front of Treasure City, closing us down for two weeks.

This latest fire is not a suprise as the abandoned building had been used for drugs and prostitution by members of the local street community, after plywood panels boarding it up had been removed last summer. We had asked the owners to re-secure the building on three occassions over a nine month period to no avail. In the end we resealed the window a number of times, removed debris, and cut away branches that provided hiding places.

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