Blaze that Destroyed Buildings in Williamsburg, KY, Probed
Lexington Herald-Leader
(TNS)
Federal arson experts are investigating a devastating downtown Williamsburg fire that destroyed nearly an entire block of businesses on Main Street and injured two people earlier this week.
The scale of the Tuesday night blaze that destroyed or damaged at least seven two-story buildings in Williamsburg’s historic court square drew the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ involvement, according to city officials. The Williamsburg Police Department does not employ a fire investigator.
ATF agents are also piecing through the wreckage to rule out any possible connections to a large fire in downtown London last week, Assistant Fire Chief Troy Thomas told the Herald-Leader. Although there is no evidence of a link between the two events so far, Police Chief Jason Caddell said, federal investigators are leading the investigation “out of an abundance of caution.”
Both fires originated in and destroyed courthouse-adjacent law offices, but a suspect has already been identified and charged in connection to the Jan. 13 London incident. Business owners in Williamsburg have been told the Jan. 20 fire there, which appears to have originated in or near the attic space, is consistent with an electrical shortage.
“As old as these buildings are, built back in the 1800s, it’s just like striking a match,” Thomas said. “We knew we were in for a long night.”
The first reports of a fire at the Law Offices of Croley and Foley in Williamsburg came just after 10 p.m. Tuesday. Police and the Williamsburg Fire Department were on scene within minutes of the call. By midnight, at least 12 adjoining county, city and volunteer fire departments had arrived, lending more than 100 firefighters and EMTs to fight the inferno.
First responders described the fire as sporadic and tricky to fight. Because it appeared to be emanating from under the rooftop eaves, crews cut holes in the buildings to get water on the flames. Heat from the original fire spread through adjoining building fire breaks and created pop-up ignitions.
One by one, local businesses, offices and second-story apartments went down, Mayor Roddy Harrison said. Crews battled the fire for roughly 15 hours.
All the residents living in second-story apartments were able to escape. One woman and her two dogs were rescued from a second-story wooden deck in a back alley. Another resident’s dog died.
The woman was transported to the hospital with minor smoke inhalation injuries. One firefighter sustained minor injuries to their foot.
Firefighter Jacob Siler, a department rookie, helped usher the woman to safety using a ladder. Siler later entered the burning law office and manned a fire hose on the second floor before he said heat from the blaze began burning his skin through his protective turnout gear.
“When your skin starts burning like that, you just can’t stay,” he said.
Hours later, after hose crews had safely left the building and finished an evacuation, the roof of the law office and several other buildings collapsed.
“It’s devastating,” Harrison said Thursday as he looked out over much of the city’s downtown core, cordoned off to traffic and pedestrians. “It’s emotional, because we’ve been working a long time to revitalize, and we were coming back. We spent a lot of time and people had gotten their pride back. Now, to see it like this...”
Williamsburg, population 5,300, has invested heavily in its downtown, pouring regional grant dollars into a revitalization project that achieved national accreditation in 2021.
Several of the businesses left damaged or destroyed Wednesday morning included law offices, an eye-care center, a wine-tasting room and a Vietnamese restaurant.
B.J. Foley, a Croley and Foley criminal defense attorney teared up remembering standing near Main Street before midnight Tuesday as he watched the office, which his family helped build and he worked at for more than two decades, burn from the inside out.
“My heart aches for everyone involved, you know?” he said. “We’re just trying to look forward to the process of rebuilding.”
Adam Howard owns a criminal defense practice at the end of the block and down the street from Croley and Foley. He recently opened a popular restaurant on the ground floor.
Howard watched as building after building succumbed to the flames before crews stood near the roof of his property and started spraying a wide arc of water in defense of the few remaining untouched businesses.
Miraculously, Howard said, his two-story building was spared.
“There were over 110 people who risked their lives to save my building,” he said Thursday, standing on the rooftop looking out over the adjacent properties that were destroyed. “They didn’t know who I was, and worked for 12 hours to get it stopped there. They risked their lives just to save my building. You don’t get any more heroic than that.”
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