Friday, February 20, 2009

14th and Harrison Fire

What a night to not have my police scanner on. A coworker came in at 6 and asked what was up with this fire downtown, and I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He said some big apartment building was on fire downtown, and I was pretty shocked and worried. I pulled up the news and saw where it was, and actually felt relieved. I was afraid it was one of the new developments downtown, or even the Blackhawk (again) or the Forrest Block building. Its a terrible thing for any building, especially a decently historic one, to burn down. However, if it had to happen, this wasn't a bad building for it to happen to. Over the years its been generally blighted and currently it was unoccupied. Its good to hear that no firefighters were injured either.

Hopefully this building doesn't sit in semi-demolished state for months on end like the Linden did downtown.

4 comments:

Pho3niX said...

QCI - You really shouldn't wish for buildings to burn down... as that's just bad karma. Use your powers for good. Oh, wait... maybe you DID.. now I'm confused. ;-)

QuadCityImages said...

No no... I was supposed to make a wish today, which is on hold.

Anonymous said...

Although it was in disrepair, that building was actually fairly nice at one point and could have been a neat historic renovation one day.

I'm sure nobody will miss the crime issues, but as a structure, it's a bummer to see it go.

Anonymous said...

"Never judge a book by it's cover" Great example of what did lie behind those walls. Dilapidated wiring, crumbling plaster, crappy workmanship, undesirable tenants, a profound number of police calls along with an unscrupulous pair owners. The neighborhood is better off with the building gone. A study could be done showing how much of the population of cockroaches that harbored there spread to the nearby homes. I'm sure the ground looked like it was moving.