The Sugar House building that went up in flames late Tuesday in a massive overnight fire was poised to become an eight-story residential and commercial property in the heart of the neighborhood’s main business district.
“This is one we were all really excited about,” Brandon Hill, co-chair of the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce, said as he stood near the site Wednesday, watching the still-burning blaze. “It was going to add to the character of the neighborhood in a way a lot of the new construction doesn’t really do.”
The Residences at Sugar Alley, located at 2188 Highland Dr., was unoccupied and partly constructed when the fire apparently first ignited around 11 p.m. Tuesday. The cause of the blaze remained unknown as of Wednesday afternoon, but Salt Lake City fire officials said federal agents will assist with the department’s investigation of the blaze.
“This is going to take countless man hours to get to the bottom of,” Capt. Tony Stowe said.
Plans called for 186 new apartments and several large, ground-floor spaces at the U-shaped building devoted to retail, as well as what was to be a publicly accessible atrium. Completion was expected in early 2023.
Salt Lake City-based officials at Lowe Property Group, the developers behind Sugar Alley, referred inquiries Wednesday afternoon to a company spokesperson based in California, on the advice of their insurance carrier. That spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fire officials had not yet calculated a damage estimate as the blaze continued to burn, churning thick billows of acrid smoke skyward. Property records show the uncompleted structure was already valued at more than $12 million as of this year.
[Read more: Sugar House fire: Crews fight massive overnight building blaze]
Elsa Jopling, 23 and a resident of the adjacent Sugarmont Apartments, stood near the Sprague branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library System, which was closed due to the nearby fire, around mid-morning Wednesday, watching as crews doused the blaze from a crane-mounted hose as it continued to rage in the southern part of the under-construction Sugar Alley complex.
Jopling, a hospital worker who moved into the Sugarmount complex in March, said she, her boyfriend and cat were evacuated at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, along with hundreds of other neighboring residents, fire officials said. Together, the trio wandered the neighborhood watching the fire for about two hours until the they opted to shelter at a nearby Airbnb.
“We don’t have a car,” Jopling said. She said they smelled something burning mid-morning Tuesday, “but we didn’t think anything of it. We just thought someone was smoking maybe.” It’s unclear if that was related to the overnight blaze.
Firefighters had tamped down most flames as of early Wednesday, but a Salt Lake City police officer at the scene mid-morning confirmed that the fire had since kicked up again with shifting winds and stormy weather.
By Wednesday afternoon, large flames were still visible as crews continued firefighting efforts. Chunks of ash and charred material dotted sidewalks as far as a mile away.
Stowe expected units to be fighting the blaze for the next 24 hours.
At the scene Wednesday morning, melted plastic coverings clung to the skeleton of the wood-built structure’s scaffolding and remaining steel beams. Smoke continued to pour from the property, but flames had not apparently spread to any adjacent buildings, including the complex Jopling lives in, fire officials said.
“There’s a tremendous amount of destruction that has happened to this building, and we’re worried about a lot of different things,” Stowe said of the Sugar Alley development. “Right now, this close proximity smoke inhalation is one of them.”
So was the potential collapse of the building’s scaffolding, he said.
Stowe noted Wednesday that at least one evacuated, adjacent building — The Vue at Sugar House Crossing, located just north of the blaze — had sustained some exterior char damage due to its proximity to ongoing firefighting efforts.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a “pretty large percentage” of neighboring residents remained evacuated, but Stowe said evacuation parameters are different for each building.
At the time, firefighters were working to restore electricity to some residents of the Sugarmont Apartments to the south of the scene, but they wouldn’t be able to restore all electricity to The Vue. Some of the units there would not be reoccupied for “quite some time,” he said.
Traffic and pedestrian walkways south of the intersection of 2100 South and Highland Drive remained cordoned off Wednesday afternoon as first responders continued to attack the blaze.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/6I7wAzT
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