PICTURES FROM WES WILSON PHOTOGRAPHY
WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — Fire investigators believe foul play is the cause of a blaze which destroyed one of the oldest buildings in downtown Williamson.
Members of the Williamson Fire Department responded a call at the building around 2 a.m. Monday. The fire was quickly contained and crews cleared the scene after about a half hour. Appalachian Power crews also cut power to the building after the first fire. However, crews were called back to the building around 7:30 a.m. where a fire had been set in the elevator shaft and spread rapidly across the building.
Smoke billowed out of the downtown as nearly all of the businesses in the downtown were forced to close as power was cut to the entire area. Crews from Mingo and Logan County as well as neighboring Kentucky fire departments offered mutual aid in the response. It took much of Monday to finally get the blaze out.
By the time the fire was under control, two of the buildings exterior walls had collapsed and the rest were being knocked down by excavators as a precaution by the end of the day.
The building was empty, but was undergoing renovation to become a new facility of the Williamson Wellness Center.
Nobody was in injured in the fire. An investigation by the State Fire Marshal and Mingo County Sheriff’s Department into the fires origin is underway.