Fire destroys North Sangamon Street building in Lincoln Tuesday night

 

[June 09, 2022] 

According to Lincoln Fire Chief Bob Dunovsky a fire that was reported at 10:15 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7th completely destroyed the building located at 125 North Sangamon Street in Lincoln.

The building, Dunovsky said, was the offices of Tazwood Mental Health Center, although the tenants had temporarily moved out of the building while it was being remodeled.

At 10:15 p.m. the fire department was called to the scene after a citizen called 9-1-1 reporting he could see flames shooting out of the building. Those who were at the scene during the fire included Ethan Hoinacki who sent in photos to Lincoln Daily News, showing the roof of the building appeared to be totally engulfed in flames with heavy smoke heading southward toward the Sangamon Branch of the Heartland Bank/State Bank of Lincoln.

Dunovsky said that the department responded and soon after called in for mutual aid from outlying departments in the county. Then later there was another call for assistance, a “special mutual aid” call for tankers. Dunovsky said that tankers were assigned to haul water from a hydrant in the area of the Logan Lanes Bowling Alley and for three hours the trucks continually ran water into the holding tank on scene.

During the fire, it was reported that there were LP tanks visible on the roof of the structure. Dunovsky said that there was an ongoing roofing project going on at the scene and there were indeed tanks on the roof. Those tanks he said did not explode and he noted that when the roof collapsed, the tanks went with them and are now buried under the rubble at the scene.

Lincoln Fire Inspector Chris Davis filed the following report on the fire:

"On Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at 10:15 p.m. Lincoln Fire was dispatched to a structure fire with flames showing. Upon arrival Lincoln Firefighters found flames coming through the roof of the structure the incident was then upgraded to a 1st alarm fire. Firefighters then began a defensive fire attack by using master streams from Truck 5103 and Truck 5102 and Lincoln Rural Truck 5109. The fire was brought under control at 4 a.m. The fire is estimated to have caused $300,000 in damage and is currently under investigation by Lincoln Fire Department. Lincoln Fire was also assisted by Lincoln Police, LCPA, Lincoln Rural, Atlanta, New Holland, Mount Pulaski, Latham and Middletown Fire Departments.”
 

Dunovsky said that as always, the help of the other departments was greatly appreciated and helped tremendously in getting the fire put out. He added that he felt the Lincoln Department and those that assisted did a remarkable job of keeping the fire from spreading to the building just south of the fire.

The building next door to 125 North Sangamon is ‘L” shaped, with one portion of it being only a very few feet from structure that was burning.

Dunovsky noted at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon that the fire was being classified as “Undetermined cause.”

No injuries were reported during the fire.

[Nila Smith with information from Inspector Chris Davis and Lincoln Fire Chief Bob Dunovsky]

*Photos by Ethan Hoinacki, Lincoln Rural Fire Protection District and Nila Smith