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The cause of a fire in the 200 block of Roanoke Avenue Saturday remains undetermined, Roanoke Rapids Fire Chief Jason Patrick said.

Patrick said following Tuesday’s city council work session that both the fire department and police department investigated the fire which caused the roof in the former Fitts Crumpler building to collapse. Foul play is not suspected.

Patrick spoke to council earlier in the evening about the fire and the work not only city firefighters did to contain the blaze to a single building but the work of other departments and agencies during the 6:30 a.m. call.

“Because of the response efforts and the teamwork involved in it, the fire was able to be contained to one building,” City Manager Kelly Traynham said before calling Patrick to speak to the council. “The (Roanoke Rapids) fire department was the lead agency in this effort  but the fire department did not work alone. None of our city departments truly work alone.”

Traynham said the assistance of the public works and police departments aided in the efforts to keep people and other properties safe.

“These events are quick, they’re hot and I commend everyone for their part in it,” she said. “It doesn’t just go up to the day of the event but to the administrative side when you’re looking at the building in the aftermath and potential demolition permits and cleanup permits and everything else that goes into it. So those efforts led to the conclusion of this. You never want to experience loss but this was minimized to the greatest extent possible.”

Biggest fire concern

Patrick said the 200 block of the avenue is the biggest concern for fire in the city because the buildings are older. Tax records show the Fitts Crumpler building was constructed in 1907.

He said the building was in good shape. “We’ve been in a lot of old buildings. A lot of them are not in as good of shape as her building was,” he said referring to Julia Fitts. “Her building was in very good shape. There’s quite a few down there that are in very bad shape. It causes heartburn for us looking at it from a strategic side of it as far as extinguishing it and maintaining it and keeping it to one building if it does catch on fire.”

Patrick said the city’s firefighters as well as the other departments which responded helped keep the fire contained to one building.

Firefighters attempted to fight the fire from the inside but the heat and smoke was intense, pushing them down to the floor. “Our primary goal at that point was trying to get some ventilation up there to allow some of that heat and smoke out.”

That would also help firefighters see better under what initially was zero visibility conditions.  “They worked over an hour and a half trying to extinguish that fire from the inside,” Patrick said. “We figured out we were not going to be able to do anything with it from the inside and we were putting our guys at risk. At that time it was time to back out.” 

Perimeters set, other assistance

Then the fire department set up perimeters to keep the fire from spreading to other buildings. Two adjoining buildings did receive minor damage — some damage to roofing material and some fallen bricks. “I think all involved did a great job to maintain it and not let it get into other buildings,” Patrick said.

In fire situations, however, there are circumstances which are beyond the control of firefighters. “That’s what these guys train for day in and day out — to go in there and extinguish this fire and maintain it to that one particular building.”

Assistance with the fire not only took the form of fire departments and EMS. The Roanoke Rapids Sanitary District and Dominion Energy assisted.

“That’s something you don’t think about a lot,” the fire chief said, referring to the RRSD. “When we put those two aerials in the air flowing water we were flowing about 1,500 gallons of water per minute. We called the water department and said we were getting ready to flow a lot of water. They said we’re going to give you everything we’ve got so they cut the pumps on and started pumping us more water in to give us more pressure to get that extra water there to make sure that fire didn’t move on and advance into other buildings.”

Dominion has power lines that run up the avenue and carry around 19,000 volts to feed the city. “With those aerial devices you can only work but so close to those power lines. If you hit it you can energize that piece of machinery and cause injury or kill someone.”

Mayor Emery Doughtie thanked the firefighters for the work they do.

“I cannot say enough nice things about the Roanoke Rapids Fire Department,” Fitts said. “We had wonderful service. We appreciate all the help from Davie, Gaston, and Weldon that came to the rescue. I appreciate some of the contact that some of the council gave us. The mayor reached out to us. These little things mean an awful lot.”

Fitts did say she would like to see keyholders or owners notified. She found out about the fire through her daughter-in-law, whose husband who is a volunteer firefighter.

But overall, Fitts said, “I cannot say enough nice things. The firemen brought out our safe and some filing cabinets that we were able to save.”