Firefighters attack blaze at downtown businesses

The Dublin Fire Department is investigating a Wednesday-night fire that totaled an old building and caused slight damage to a neighboring business in downtown Dublin.

According to Dublin Fire Chief Matthew Cutler, they received a call around 7:54 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7, about a structure fire at Dublin Glass, 109 Union St. When they arrived, they discovered that the fire did not originate from there, but had moved over to it from the business next door at 806 E. Jackson St. 

Cutler said that the business was being used by RR Towing.

“That building is totally destroyed,” the chief said. “There was a tractor-trailer and some sort of work truck that was in the building, and both were totally destroyed. They were using it as a tow yard and possibly for some mechanic work.”

The heat and flames coming from the building wound up catching the back side of Dublin Glass on fire as firefighters arrived. There is a narrow alley that separated both buildings.  Firefighters were able to contain the fire to a storage room in Dublin Glass.

“They do have some water damage from us putting that fire out in their building,” Cutler said. “Their building is definitely going to be repairable. We were thankful for that.”

Another small building between the two that Cutler said used to be a radiator shop did not sustain any damage. 

“We do not suspect foul play, but we will be returning (to the scene),” Cutler said. “We had to force entry into the fences and everything. It didn’t look like anything was out of place but we’ll take another look at it.”

While fighting the blaze, firefighters had to access three different hydrants. The use of hydrants in front of Roche Farm & Garden Inc. and Dairy Queen forced East Jackson Street to be temporarily closed. 

“There was only one hydrant on the side of the road that we were on,” Cutler said. “The other two that we needed were across the road and we can’t have people driving across the fire hoses. We had to shut the bridge down and we are sorry for the inconvenience. We got it opened up as quickly as we could, but we had a large scene and a large amount of fire going on.”

Fighting a fire at night is challenging because it is hard to see all of the potential hazards. 

“It was a big blaze,” Cutler said. “Our objective was to contain the fire to the building where it started. We were primarily concerned that no other buildings were damaged more than they were.”

The investigation revealed that the fire was accidental and started in the area of a wrecker that was being repaired inside the building, Cutler said. In all, four vehicles and two ATVs were destroyed.

DFD received automatic aid from the East Dublin and Laurens County fire departments, as well as from the Johnson State Fire Team. At one point, Cutler believes that 30 firefighters were on the scene.

“That was great,” he said. “Mutual and automatic aid are life savers. Having good relationships with your neighbors is a great thing.”

The DFD’s tower truck was set up on the building where the fire began. The roof had already fallen in by the time they set up to work. 

“We had hand lines trying to keep the fire out of Dublin Glass, but the storage room had exterior windows that failed, and it also got into an attic space through an attic vent,” Cutler said. “We had another engine on the Dublin Glass side and attacked the fire from that side of it. We had a pretty big scene.”

One firefighter was treated for a laceration. He was transported by Laurens County EMS to Fairview Park Hospital where he was treated and released, Cutler said. It took firefighters a little more than a hour to get the fire under control. He thanked local law enforcement for helping to shut down traffic. Officials were able to clear the scene around midnight. 

“According to the tax assessor’s office, that building was built in 1945 and was almost 3,000 square feet,” Cutler said. “It was an older building and a guy talked about some electrical issues.”