By Alicia Couch Payne
On Monday, February 4, 2019, Gwinnett County 9-1-1 dispatched fire crews at 12:41 p.m. to respond to a call about smoke coming out of the crawl space in a three-story building in part of the old Tannery in the 100 block of East Main Street NE in Buford, Georgia. Nearby businesses like Marisa Jill’s were evacuated.
The North Gwinnett Voice was on scene and was able to speak to the Fire Department Public Information Officer or PIO, as well as, the Fire Chief. The PIO was able to provide us with the information that we relayed to our readers on Facebook. Below is what we learned on the scene.
Upon arrival crews found smoke coming from the crawl space area and water also coming out of the building. Crews had to use a K12 saw to cut through two doors to access the crawl space area on the backside of the building. The building’s sprinkler system was able to suppress the fire which bought fire crews time to mount an attack. The fire had extension where it traveled up to the first floor and was on its way to the second floor. An aggressive attack from firefighters kept the fire from spreading to the second floor.
The building suffered minor fire damage to the crawl space and first-floor area on the backside of the building. It also had extensive water damage and moderate smoke damage. No one was injured during the fire or afterward while fighting the blaze.
Fire Investigators were able to determine that the cause of the fire was an accident and electrical in nature.
This fire could have been so much worse. It could have potentially taken out the whole tannery on that part of Main Street. Because of this potential and the fact that the tannery structure is so large, six fire engines, two trucks, one squad, two medic units, one air and light unit, two battalion chiefs, one district commander, three fire investigators, and one PIO responded to the scene.
While crews battled this fire, Main Street was closed. At approximately 1:10 p.m., crews had managed to knock down the fire and by 1:54 p.m., it was completely under control.
