Fire, then heavy machinery, wiped from the Erie landscape a furniture store that served the city for about 50 years.
"Gone," Fred Barbato said simply as he stared at the remnants of Fred's Beds & Furniture late Friday morning, hours after a television news report alerted him to a fire that leveled a business he has run since taking over for his father.
Trying to determine a cause to the fire, which was first reported at the large, two-story brick building at 117 E. 12th St. at 4:28 a.m. on Friday, will be a difficult task based on the extent of damage, Erie Chief Fire Inspector Guy Santone said.
The cause is still under investigation, Santone said Friday evening.
The fire spread quickly through the building and burned through the roof, which collapsed. Once the fire was contained, after hours of flooding the building with hoses from three tower trucks and from crews on the ground, a decision was made to knock down what was still standing.
A major concern, Erie Bureau of Code Enforcement Manager Andy Zimmerman said, was of the western wall of the building's shell falling onto the neighboring Wendy's restaurant.
The demolition began late Friday morning and continued throughout the afternoon, with the rubble loaded into large dump trailers and hauled away. Barbato stood huddled with family members as machines plucked through piles of brick, charred wood, twisted steel beams and blackened mattress springs and bed frames.
Santone said most of the building had been taken down as of Friday evening and that demolition work would continue today.
Erie firefighters were initially called to the area of East 12th and French streets to investigate a report of smoke, and when they arrived they saw very light smoke coming from the roofline of the front of the building and light smoke at the back of the building, Deputy Fire Chief Mike Balliett said.
"We made a quick attack from the front. Two companies went in, and they found heavy fire in the rear of the first floor, the void space between the first floor and the second floor, and the second floor," said Balliett, adding that access to the second floor was "kind of limited" inside the building.
The fire spread quickly, forcing firefighters to get out of the building and fight the fire from outside, Fire Chief Tony Pol said.
All of the Erie Bureau of Fire's on-duty crews were sent to the fire, along with three off-duty crews, Balliett said. The Belle Valley Fire Department was also called to bring its tower truck to the scene.
Despite fighting a westerly wind, firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to neighboring Dominick's Eatery, Pol said. Crews were stationed on the second floor and the roof of the restaurant building, and they were able to keep the building shielded from flames, according to Balliett.
The restaurant building received some smoke and water damage, Santone said. It was unknown Friday when Dominick's would reopen.
A relative of Barbato's said customers of the furniture store had come up to them in tears, and handed them cards, as the family stood across East 12th Street while firefighters fought the fire Friday. Other onlookers gathered across the street in the parking lot of Taco Bell, which Balliett said opened its doors as a warming shelter to firefighters.
Erie police shut down stretches of East 12th and French streets during the fire, and narrowed the closed sections to East 12th Street between French and Holland streets, and French Street between East 12th and 13th streets, as the demolition commenced.
TIM HAHN can be reached at 870-1731 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNhahn.
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