Downtown parking garage fire proves difficult for Dayton firefighters

UPDATE @ 5:45 p.m.

A fire at an abandoned parking garage this evening didn’t cause any damage, but it proved difficult for firefighters.

“Apparently there’s a trash fire in the basement. It’s a small room under one of the ramps. It’s very difficult to get to and very difficult to extinguish,” said Barry Baldwin, district chief of the Dayton Fire Department. “We had to extend all of our hose lines to about 400 feet to be able to reach the fire.

“It took us quite a bit of time to find it because of the smoke conditions,” Baldwin said. “We absolutely couldn’t see anything.”

The fire was reported around 4:20 at the garage at 26 E. First St., behind the theaters on North Main Streets in downtown Dayton.

The basement was pitch black with heavy smoke. A person who used to work in the building was able to warn fire crews of features in the basement, such as holes, so they could avoid getting hurt.

Baldwin said firefighters searched every floor and did not find anyone in the garage, which he said was not damaged because it’s all concrete.

Crews need to ventilate the structure before they can determine what burned in the basement. He said there was a report that homeless people had been using the facility, so Baldwin speculated the fire may have been started as someone burning trash or other debris brought in to cook or stay warm.

Despite initial reports, Baldwin said nearby theaters did not need to be evacuated.

FIRST REPORT

Firefighters encountered smoke pouring from an abandoned parking garage near Victoria Theater in downtown Dayton.

The fire is reported in the basement of the building in the 100 block of North Main Street.

People in the Victoria Theatre and the Human Race Theater are being told to evacuate.

We’ll update this story as more information becomes available.

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