GEORGE RICHERT
WIVB
Reprinted with Permission

DUNKIRK, N.Y. - A raging fire has consumed part of the business district in downtown Dunkirk.

After four and a half hours of fighting, fire companies will have to continue to battle the blaze. There are more than 100 firefighters on the scene contending with the fire. The buildings involved are over 100 years old and the flames were sky high.

A cleaning lady heard the first fire alarm at about 5:20 p.m. in the old Masonic Temple on Central Avenue in Dunkirk. There were more than 30 6-year-olds in a fourth floor gymnastics class at the time.

Dunkirk Fire Chief Keith Ahlstrom said, "There was a dance group that was in the building. They made sure that they were leaving the building."

Faith Baptist Church was going to hold a 7 p.m. service on the second floor.

Pastor Roger Eimers of the Faith Baptist Church said, "Sad to see because we had our youth center in there. We had our church services in there."

But part of the building was the Chautauqua County Family Court and the buildings on both sides are offices for 150 county workers. Luckily, the temple only housed a part-time courtroom for Family Court. All of the records are kept in Mayville and were not put at risk because of the fire.

As for the county workers, Chautauqua County Executive Greg Edwards said, "We are going to begin our day at the regular scheduled start time at Jamestown Community College's north campus on Route 60. Whenever they're supposed to report to work tomorrow, do so there. We are making emergency plans and arrangements for any activity, equipment, and personnel to disburse from there tomorrow."

Dan Reininga owns the two county office buildings.

"This structure right here was originally built by my great-grandfather George H. Graff in 1905 and housed our family furniture store," explained Reininga.

Chief Ahlstrom said, "We've maxed out the city's water supply system. We are pumping our water filtration plant at its maximum capacity and we still don't have enough water for all of the streams that we're using."

"We've had to shut off Route 5 because to gain more water to continue to fight this fire, we had to draw water directly out of Lake Erie," explained Edwards.

A portion of Route 5 is closed in both directions. The hoses go under the railroad bridge two to three blocks away from the fire as they are pumping out water from Lake Erie to continue pouring water on these buildings.

Over 200 children who took Karate lessons in the Masonic Temple are amongst the group displaced. Their teacher is looking for a new place to rent out to continue their lessons. Learn more about his quest by watching George's reporter's notebook .

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