10/22/18 - Your News Now at Ten
An eight-alarm fire destroys two buildings and severely damages a third in downtown Leipsic.
Just after noon on Monday, a Leipsic village employee saw fire in the back of one of the buildings in the 200 block of East Main Street. Flames started to move to the roofs and fire departments from Henry, Hancock, Allen, and across Putnam County were called in to help control the fire.
“Truck were rolling in, guys were rolling in. Everybody hustling and bustling to get things going and they started working right away, started working on that fire. It was just crazy at first," said Angela Walter, witnessed firefighters arrive on scene.
"A lot of mutual aid, a lot of different departments here and all the firemen work well together,” said Eliane Goodwin, witnessed firefighters arrive on scene.
The smoke from the fire was so thick that you could see it from miles away.
“We were coming back from Findlay, and we see this smoke and we were coming home anyway. And we just thought we see where this smoke was, and we got into town and we found it,” said Rose Altman, Leipsic Residents.
The fire caused the roof and ceilings to collapse in the two eastern buildings, the damage was so severe that they started tearing down those buildings right after firefighters had the fire under control. But the other two buildings on the block sustained moderate to little damage.
“The third building which was the only occupied building, we were able to contain it to that building. The Uptown Market and the lofts up above, we were able to completely keep it out of that. There was only water damage to that third building. The occupant was actually able to get in and get a lot of their valuables out," said Neil Goodwin, Fire Chief of the Leipsic Fire Department.
Besides using ladder truck from area departments to get on top of the fire, three drones from Putnam and two surrounding counties with thermal imaging cameras were used to get way above the fire to help crews better direct their attack.
“We could put those drones in the air, combine images, and then direct hose streams off of our ladder trucks to extinguish the hot spots that we couldn’t necessarily see," said Neil Goodwin.
No one was injured in the fire and the State Fire Marshal was called in to investigate the cause.
10/22/18 - Your News Now at Five
A devastating fire hit multiple buildings in downtown Leipsic.
Around noon Monday, the Leipsic Fire Department was called out to 203 East Main Street for reports of smoke coming from the building, but soon after the fire engulfed two buildings and caused smoke and heat damage to surrounding buildings. Fire crews from around Putnam, Allen, Hancock, and Henry counties were called in to assist. Ladder trucks were brought in to help hit the fire from the roof, there were reports of part of the building collapsing. No one was hurt during the fire, and people did live in the building.
"We were coming back from Findlay and we saw the smoke, we were coming home anyway and we just thought we’d see where the smoke was coming from and when we got in town we found it," said Rose Altman. "People were living in that building - thank God everyone got out okay."
Different departments and the community itself worked together to help those that were affected by the fire.
"I work at St. Rita’s and the girls at work knew that I was needed here, I brought food and supplies, so I came home and we got a great community here, our fire department, the community, everyone pulls together," said Elaine Goodwin.
"People were stopping in, asking how they can help us out, different businesses were offering to donate if we needed anything, so it’s been really good, really nice community," said Angela Walter, a worker at Leipsic Vet Service, a business next door to the fire.
The Ohio State Fire Marshal was brought in to conducted the investigation into the cause of the fire.
