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Heavy equipment begins to arrive on February 9, 2021, at the scene of a 4 alarm fire that destroyed a building at 1100 E. Carson Street in the SouthSide neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Half of the building collapsed during the fire, and the other half will have to be demolished for safety reasons. Overnight snow delayed the arrival of demolition equipment.
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Half of historic South Side structure collapses during fire

Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette

Half of historic South Side structure collapses during fire

Another piece of Pittsburgh history is gone.

A fire Monday afternoon caused the partial collapse of a 160-year-old building on the South Side. City officials say the other half of the building at 1100 E. Carson Street will have to come down, too.

Firefighters battled the blaze for several hours as flames shot from the top floors and smoke poured out, a grim beacon that could be seen throughout town. About 30 minutes into the fight to control the blaze, an evacuation order was issued for firefighters to get out. About 30 minutes after that, an entire half of the multi-story building fell in a thunderous heap of bricks, glass and wood onto East Carson and 11th streets. 

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The first floor of the historic structure was home to J’s Master Barbershop and the South Side Welcome Center, the South Side Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters. The upper floors contained apartments.

The side that collapsed contained the welcome center.

Site of fire on South Side

Firefighting crews respond to a building fire at the South Side Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center on East Carson Street.

Candace Gonzalez, executive director of the South Side Chamber of Commerce, was in the building when the fire started a few floors above her.

She could hear the sound of a firefighter’s hose before she even knew what was happening. “I heard water running and thought maybe one of the tenants upstairs left the sink on her bathtub running.”

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Just then a firefighter ushered Ms. Gonzalez out of the building.

“I’m a little rattled,” she said, but was otherwise unharmed.

Ed Vidunas has lived nearly all of his 68 years on the South Side and, since 1977, in the house on 11th Street immediately next to the fire-gutted structure. As he usually does, Mr. Vidunas had a police scanner on in his house and heard about the fire there before smelling smoke and the sound of a police officer banging on his door telling him to evacuate.

“I’m one of the lucky ones today,” he said, referring to his neighbors who may have come home from work or school to find everything gone.

He was being kept out of his home until authorities decide what to do about the damaged building next door.

A friend, Ben Wilczynski of the South Side Slopes, was helping him check into a hotel for the night. He said he didn’t believe his house sustained much smoke or water damage, but he was unsure about when he would be allowed back in to be sure.

Fire officials had not determined what caused the blaze, which began before 3 p.m. and quickly went to three alarms. Pittsburgh fire Chief Darryl Jones said no one was hurt and no one was missing.

 

Chief Jones said the decision to withdraw firefighters from the building was made because of concerns about a collapse.

“It was anticipated that there was going to be a collapse,” he said. “We were flowing thousands of gallons of water, and each gallon weighs about 8½ pounds, so you can imagine the excessive weight we put on this building that wasn’t designed to hold that weight. That’s why we had everyone pulled out and moved our rigs away from the collapse zone.”

The remaining structure’s instability was evident even as Chief Jones gave a briefing to reporters about 4:30 p.m. — a chimney fell from the structure as he spoke.

Chief Jones said a team from the city’s Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections would quickly evaluate the still-standing half of the structure to determine whether it would require “an immediatee emergency demolition.”

Later, Wendell Hissrich, the city’s director of public safety, told Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV that the rest of the building would be razed Tuesday morning.

The 3½-story building, which had a mansard roof, was built sometime between 1860 and 1879, according to a historic survey done in 1981 by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. At that time, the Socialist Workers Party was based in the building.

Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., a founder of PHLF, the city’s oldest preservation group, recalled that the late Gerald Lee Pekich and his business partner, Art Silverman, restored the Second Empire building at 1100 E. Carson Street in the early 1970s, using the first floor for retail and the upper floors for apartments. The two men later restored several other South Side buildings, Mr. Ziegler added.

“This was the first one they did. It helped spark our Carson Street program,” Mr. Ziegler said.

Mr. Pekich was the first president of the South Side Development Corp. Mr. Pekich and his partner, Mr. Ziegler said, followed an example set by PHLF, which bought a building at 1701 Carson St. .and restored it in 1968.

So many intact Victorian-era buildings stand on Carson Street that it has been designated a National Register Historic District.

Allegheny County property records list the building owners as Leonard and Catherine Wall, who bought 1100 E. Carson Street in 1991 for $152,500. The total assessed value of the property for 2020 was $460,000, according to the records. Representatives of the Wall family could not be reached for comment Monday.

Jon Growall, who lives about 10 blocks away, is a past president of the neighborhood Chamber of Commerce. He is relieved that no one was harmed, but said the damage to the neighborhood was immense.

“That was the center of everything that we’ve worked toward as a neighborhood group over the past decade,” he said, adding that the building was a gateway to the neighborhood and business district.

Chief Jones said East Carson Street between 10th and 12th streets would be closed indefinitely until the debris had been removed.

“We’ll block the street off so no one gets hurt,” he said.

Dan Gigler: dgigler@post-gazette.com. Marylynne Pitz at mpitz@post-gazette.com or on Twitter @mpitzpg

First Published: February 8, 2021, 8:33 p.m.

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Heavy equipment begins to arrive on February 9, 2021, at the scene of a 4 alarm fire that destroyed a building at 1100 E. Carson Street in the SouthSide neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Half of the building collapsed during the fire, and the other half will have to be demolished for safety reasons. Overnight snow delayed the arrival of demolition equipment.  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
The scene of a building fire at 1100 E. Carson Street on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021 on the South Side. A fire Monday afternoon caused the partial collapse of the 160-year-old building on the South Side. City officials say the other half of the building will have to come down, too. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Firefighters are on the scene of a fire in a commercial building that went to 4 alarms at 1100 East Carson St in Pittsburgh's SouthSide neighborhood. Post-Gazette photo by Steve Mellon  (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Firefighters are on the scene of a fire in a commercial building that went to 4 alarms at 1100 East Carson St in Pittsburgh's SouthSide neighborhood. Post-Gazette photo by Steve Mellon  (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
A fire at a building in the 1100 block of East Carson Street in the South Side on Monday.  (Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety)
Firefighters look on after half of a building collapsed while crews were battling a blaze at the South Side Welcome Center on East. Carson and 11th streets on Monday.  (Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette)
Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette
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