By Kim McDarison

Firefighters from various communities responded Saturday to calls for mutual aid and worked alongside the Whitewater Fire Department to quickly contain and extinguish a fire which broke out on the roof of a downtown building.

Whitewater Police Lt. Shawn Reif said he received a call at his home at about 2:20 p.m., alerting him that flames were emanating from the roof of a building at 137 W. Center Street.

The fire was called in and emergency agencies quickly responded, he said.

Reif, who lives outside of the city of Whitewater, said that by the time he arrived on the scene, around 3 p.m., flames and smoke were no long visibly emanating from the building.

Reif credited firefighters with quick response times and expertise which allowed them to isolate the fire and extinguish it before it spread to other, connected buildings in the downtown area.

The approximately 3,000-square-foot, three story building was formerly the location of a pizza parlor, he said.

Reif noted that the building is a wooden structure. On Saturday, the owners, whom he described as a husband and wife, were working to repair a leak on the roof.

Fire broke out while the male owner was working with tar, or a sealant, and a torch, Reif said, adding that it was his understanding that the torch came in contact with “a random piece of cardboard,” which caught on fire.

Reif said the female owner was the person who reported the fire.

Reif did not release the names of the building’s owners.

He said that the couple confirmed to firefighters and police that no one was in the building at the time of the fire. The space inside the building at 137 Center Street was affected by the fire, but, he said, it was his understanding that the building was not a total loss.

Additionally, Reif confirmed that there were no reported injuries associated with the fire.

While firefighters were working to extinguish the fire there was a report of someone being transported for medical care, but, he said, he believed that incident was unrelated to the fire.

He also understood that there are four apartments above the former pizza parlor space, but they were not occupied because the owners were doing work to the building.

Reif said he believed the building’s three stories sustained smoke and water damage. Water damage affected the full building because the fire was on the roof, he noted. 

Once firefighters arrived, flames were extinguished in about 30 minutes, he said.

Of the efforts made by responding agencies, he said: “They did an excellent job. It could have been a lot worse.”

While emergency responders extinguished the fire, law enforcement agencies  blocked off the downtown area from traffic for about a one block area around the affected building, Reif said, adding that the public was very good about respecting the barricades and staying away from the scene. The area around the building was blocked off for about an hour and a half, he said.

Before leaving the scene, Whitewater Fire and EMS Chief Kelly Freeman said that the fire department would soon release additional information to the media.

An earlier story about the fire is here:http://whitewaterwise.com/structural-fire-damages-center-street-building-in-whitewater/. 

Information released by the Whitewater Fire Department is here: https://whitewaterwise.com/whitewater-fire-department-officials-downtown-fire-quickly-extinguished-two-buildings-involved/. 

This story has been updated.