Downtown Fort Mill Fire

[jeffmulter]

Saturday, May 5 -

Fort Mill Fire was dispatched about 3:21 a.m. for a structure fire at Tony's Pizza on Main Street. Main Street is the narrow road running through the center of downtown Fort Mill.

Tony's is at the southern end of a row of attached older commercial buildings running the length of the original downtown area.

The following York County fire companies responded during the first hour: Fort Mill, Flint Hill, Riverview and Newport. Pleasant Valley and Indian Land also responded from Lancaster County. Bethesda Fire Dept. moved up to cover Newport's area.

Until a little after 6 a.m., the fire departments attacked the structure fire from above, with 3 ladder trucks directing water streams on the structure roof. I believe most of the roof over the original structure collapsed during the fire, although an adjoining church faired much better.

Electricity to the area was shut down by Duke Power early in the operation. Rock Hill, which supplies water to Fort Mill, was contacted to increase the water pressure on the pipeline running to Fort Mill.

Command declared the fire under control at 6:28 a.m., as firemen were addressing a few hot spots on the front of the structure.

The timing of this fire is particularly bad for the Town of Fort Mill. Yesterday evening, the town began its annual "Fest-I-Fun" celebration. The event normally runs the entire weekend in the same two-block area as the fire.

With regards to monitoring this fire, command was rebroadcast on the Fort Mill Fire repeater - 154.845 / 127.3 R. Additional information was available on the York County 800 trunked system ... particularly the 4961x talkgroups.

 

[rescuecomm]

My ex lives in Fort Mill so I will have to get my son to see what she knows about it. Sounds like a major problem for the township. Least they fared better than Greenburg, Kansas.

Bob

 

[jeffmulter]

The structure that burned was within 100 feet of the performance stage, the bandstand and numerous activities that were a part of the Fest-i-Fun.

Because of the unsafe nature of what was left of the structure, as well as an investigation and clean-up the would take all day Saturday, the decision was made early Saturday to cancel the rest of the festival.

I presume the town, as well as alot of local businesses and vendors, will feel the economic impact of the cancellation.

I drove through downtown Fort Mill today, and was surprised that the businesses on either side of the Pizza place appeared structurally intact. My understanding is that they suffered water damage from the fire suppression, but firewalls that were installed in recent years between the businesses probably kept the fire from spreading up the entire block of shops.

BTW - these structures date to 1947, when a fire wiped out the original row of businesses on that side of Main Street.

It's interesting you mention Greenburg, Bob. It was about 8 a.m. Saturday when I first read online about the Kansas tornados the previous evening. Even then, before the scope and magnitude of the destruction was known, I was thinking about how minor - in perspective - Fort Mill's problem was compared to Greenburg's.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people in Kansas and Oklahoma affected by the severe weather this past weekend.