DOVER, Ohio (AP) -- A fire destroyed a city block of storefronts Thursday morning and sent upstairs apartment residents fleeing.
No injuries or damage estimates were reported immediately in the pre-dawn fire. The cause of the fire, which apparently began in an upstairs apartment, was under investigation.
The fire gutted one block of side-by-side businesses including three bars, a pool table store, an engineering office and two fraternal group meeting halls. The private office of the city engineer held city records but officials said duplicates were stored elsewhere.
At least seven people fled upstairs apartments, including John Incarnato, who heard a smoke detector and fled his apartment after alerting his girlfriend and mother.
Twelve fire departments, including some as far as Massillon 18 miles away, battled the fire, which apparently spread through ceiling crawl spaces.
Dover, a city of about 13,000, is located alongside Interstate 77 about 65 miles south of Cleveland.
