The apartment where the fire started was destroyed. The water ruined booths, decor and the ceiling. The restaurant, which underwent renovations last year, suffered extensive water damage, Bartlett said. “The origin was an indication it was a slow burning fire,” Lott said. While he found the cigarette, investigators think some embers may have remained. The occupant of the apartment, whose cat died in the fire, told officials he had dropped a cigarette into a cushion around 2:30 a.m. “He was not a careful smoker when he discarded things around the apartment, from what I could see,” Lott said of the preliminary investigation. The fire was started by careless smoking by another tenant in an upstairs apartment, Lott said. “Had it gone longer before we got there, we could have lost the whole building and maybe more,” Breese said. That’s important when seconds matter in fighting a fire in an area with several adjoining buildings. The difference between being aggressive and taking a more cautious approach was due to the fact firefighters could see the flames when they first arrived and quickly deduced where the fire was coming from. “They had it out in about 10 minutes,” Breese said. This aggressive approach saved valuable time. Rather than approaching the second floor via the staircase, Breese said, firefighters immediately placed ladders and went through a second floor window with a hose to stop the fire at its origin. “What we’ve learned through the years is just how dangerous those fires can be,” said Corey Breese, public information officer for the Greenfield Fire Territory.
QUICKFIRE RESTAURANTS SERIES
Main St., are spots where historic buildings stood before they were gutted in a series of unrelated fires from 1992 to 2003. and Griggsby’s Station restaurant, 110 W. Parking lots adjacent to Lincoln Square Pancake House, 118 W. The first two blocks of West Main Street still harbor remnants of past fires that weren’t caught in time. “If this was a business that wasn’t occupied in the middle of the night, it could have been a lot worse,” Lott said. The fact the building was occupied with working smoke detectors that woke residents in time was key to preventing catastrophic loss, fire marshal Brian Lott said. “It could have been a lot worse, especially downtown because we’ve seen many fires spread and destroy other buildings,” Bartlett said. The couple were heading down the shared staircase to get outside when a nearby window exploded, but they were able to make it out safely. “They heard the alarms going off and grabbed their pets, and they’re the ones who called 911,” Bartlett said. Not only did the fire start in an apartment above her business but Bartlett’s son, Alec Armstrong, and his girlfriend, Lacey Copeland, lived in an adjoining apartment.
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