Oct. 26--The fire that damaged the former Mack Trucks and Fuller plant along Allentown's Little Lehigh Creek on Thursday night was intentionally set, fire officials said Friday.
"That was deemed arson," city fire Capt. John Christopher said. "We did detect accelerant, and we had multiple points of origin."
Judge, the Allentown Fire Department's arson K-9, sniffed out evidence indicating the 600 S. 10th St. blaze was no accident, Christopher said. Judge is a specially trained Labrador retriever.
A laboratory will do further testing of samples from the fire scene inside the vacant plant. The 6:25 p.m. blaze damaged an interior section of the massive building.
A city firefighter who fell during the fire remained in Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest on Friday with an injury to his lower leg, Christopher said.
The damaged building was a Mack Trucks factory that dates to 1905. Mack sold the plant to Traylor Engineering of Allentown in 1962, and Fuller Co. bought it in the mid-1960s.
The building, which runs more than 200 yards along Little Lehigh Creek, has changed hands several times since the '60s, but has been idle in recent years.
-- Frank Warner
Copyright 2013 - The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)
