Update: Fire Destroys One of Olde Good Things’ Architectural Salvage Warehouses

SCRANTON, Penn. – Fire destroyed an Olde Good Things’ warehouse used to store architectural antiques at their Scranton, Penn., headquarters Tuesday night, Dec. 4. No one was injured in the fire. The building and its contents were a total loss.

The three-story warehouse at Ninth Avenue between Linden Street and West Lackawanna Avenue is separate from the larger warehouses at the company’s national warehouse and headquarters at 400 Gilligan St., also in Scranton.

“This was a big fire,” says Scranton Fire Chief Tom Davis. “The building, I would say, was about 200-feet wide by 100 or so feet long. It was a big, warehouse type building, a three-story dwelling on one end with an attachment that used to be a bingo hall on the other.”

A news release the company distributed read, “We at Olde Good Things are very thankful to Jesus that none of the employees, firemen or neighbors were hurt in the warehouse fire, and that there was no damage to our neighbors’ property.”

Davis says that when firefighters arrived there was heavy, black smoke pouring from the building and that firefighters opened overhead doors and windows to try and get at the fire. Firefighters on the roof had to abandon that position though because the smoke was too heavy.

“When the air hit the heat, it just exploded into flames,” Davis says. “It was an inferno for two hours.”

The Times-Tribune newspaper in Scranton reported in its Thursday, Dec. 6, edition that Olde Good Things President Kevin Browne said that the company would examine the building and move on. The Times-Tribune also reported in its Dec. 7 edition in a follow-up story that workers were renovating the warehouse.

On Wednesday, Davis said that the fire appears accidental but that he can’t say for sure at this time until the investigation is complete, something that will take some time, in part because the basement is filled with 12-feet of water from fighting the fire.

“What we do when we get to a fire and it’s out of control is we just lay on an air horn and that tells all the firefighters to get out,” Davis explains. “It’s then what we call a ‘surround and drown fire’ but it results in it being a total loss for the property owner.”

Davis estimates that six engines and three aerial ladder trucks, including one from neighboring Dunmore Fire Department, were on the scene Tuesday night. Firefighters and investigators remained on the scene Wednesday.

Link to The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.) article -- http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19089316&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6