Andy's Angles: After the Fire

 

I am affectionately what is called a "house cat" on weekends.  Simply put, I'm in the house, or in this case, the television station.  As a result, I couldn't get to Olyphant while the big and vacant slaughterhouse on Hull Avenue was burning one week ago.  I probably wouldn't have gone anyway.  The last thing the fire departments needed was another sightseer.

I did drop in after work Monday afternoon to see the hulking structure before it's torn down.  I grew up a couple of miles away, and I attended 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades in Olyphant, and this was my first time in that section of the Queen City.

One firefighter was still there when I arrived, along with the police chief and one officer.  We chatted briefly and then I took a walk around the building.  It's bigger than it looks on television and in the photos above.

It turned out this is a case of arson, with a couple of juveniles suspected.  My sources say they were trying to keep warm in an office here and the fire got out of hand.  That's the understatement of the millennium!  I'm glad no one was hurt and it was an impressive show of the firefighting capability in the valley.  Those aerial trucks/ladders are amazing.

It's another view tomorrow.