Thousands spent after first McClung fire couldnt prevent second 13 hours ago STEPHANIE BEECKEN 6 News Reporter Knoxvilles Deputy to the Mayor Bill Lyons lives downtown. This morning around 4 a.m. he looked out his window and saw flames shooting into sky. My heart sank, Lyons said of the sight. Mainly for the safety of folks there for the investment into properties people have made nearby and for the buildings that we were so hopeful we could retain for future development. In 2007, the city spent almost a million dollars dealing with that massive fire. The first fire was quite costly, a couple of fire fighters were injured thank God they recovered we had a fire truck that was lost. The city then spent a few thousand dollars, securing the building, putting up razor wire and boarding the doors. Lyons says that todays fire will not cost nearly as much as the blaze in 2007. This fire the fire department got there quickly some folks might have slipped but we know of no other injury to anyone other than slipping on the ice, Lyons said. Despite crews arriving on the scene quickly, the severe damage was done to one building. Part of it even collapsed, and the rest had to be torn town. Lyons hates to see these historic buildings destroyed. These are tremendously valuable to history. As warehouses they are indicative of a great amount of commercial activity that took place in Knoxville and other like cities, and once you lose something like that, you cant get it back. The city acquired the building in November. Before this fire, the city was working on getting bids to stabilize the building, so as to prevent further water damage. The goal was to within a year, have private contractors buy the McClung Warehouse and restore at least two of the historic buildings. With one building destroyed, Lyons hopes the other structure can be saved. We are hopeful the one building will be able to remain, we are hopeful but we just dont know.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 10:11:47 +0000
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