No decision made on future of China Palace building
The residents of the 14 West Jefferson Street apartments damaged or destroyed in Wednesday's fire were escorted one-by-one into their homes Thursday morning by Butler firefighters, to see what they could salvage.
Fire and city code enforcement officials examined the building to determine whether it would be torn down. That decision had not been made as of noon Thursday.
Clad in borrowed or donated clothing — or the outfits they had on their back when they fled the fire Wednesday night — residents stared in disbelief at the charred remains of 134-138 W. Jefferson St.
Breanna Robinson arrived home from work to her apartment above China Palace restaurant and saw her neighbor standing half naked behind the building.
“She said the building was on fire and then I saw smoke billowing out of the windows,” Robinson said.
She lost a flat-screen TV, a large DVD collection, king sized bed, a Blu-ray DVD player she got for Christmas and all her artwork and artist equipment in the blaze, which damaged her apartment heavily.
“I'm glad I have work clothes so I can go to work,” Robinson said.
Daniel Toner ignored the blaring smoke alarm at his sister-in-law's apartment until he saw a wisp of smoke out of the corner of his eye.
“When I opened the door, a wall of smoke hit me,” Toner said. “I was running into everything trying to make it to the stairs. The smoke was that thick.”
Capt. Jim Kaufman of the Butler Fire Department said preliminary damage estimates are $250,000 to the structure and contents.
He said the biggest problem in fighting the fire was the inaccessible flames hiding between the three layers of roofing on top of the building.
Firefighters cleared the scene at about 10:30 p.m. They got the call at 3:38 p.m.
The residents are hoping to get help from the various agencies in the city.
“I was homeless before and now I'm homeless again,” said resident Richard Bruno.
