Delivered to 15,000 Plainfield "doorsteps" Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday

Friday, July 12, 2013

Suspicious fire destroys warehouse





Smoke billowed from West Front Street warehouse fire
as police directed traffic.

 
A vacant Plainfield warehouse on West Front Street was destroyed in a suspicious fired Thursday afternoon.

I had just left City Hall and was turning onto Front Street when I noticed an enormous plume of black smoke seemingly coming from near the Auto Zone store.

I was able to make it as far as the gas station at the corner of Plainfield Avenue, where police had blocked Front Street and were directing all traffic south onto Plainfield Avenue.

The time stamp on my first photo shows it was taken at 3:24 PM.

My suspicions about the fire were roused first by the rapidity with which the cloud of smoke mushroomed, and secondly on learning that it was the vacant warehouse behind the White Star diner; the same building had been the scene of another fire a few months ago.

The Courier's Mark Spivey has the best coverage (see here), but television news helicopters also hovered overhead for an hour or so (see ABC coverage here).

According to Spivey's report, Chief Tidwell indicates the Union County Arson Task Force will be making a determination about the fire's origins.



1 comments:

Bill Garrett said...

It should be noted, that the building was once the factory for Plainfield's only auto ever produced here. The American Six, as it was called, was assembled in this building during the 1920's, and early 30's. Louis Chevrolet was the chief engineer, and lived on Park Ave., prior to going to Detroit, and building Chevys.