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Fire destroys chair, tent rental business in Struthers
Photo
Jake Zimmerman, a firefighter with the Western Reserve Joint Fire District in Poland, hoses down the remains of a Struthers building at 625 Spring St. that caught fire Monday morning.
By Kalea Hall
STRUTHERS
Jason Heck looked out the window while sitting down to eat breakfast at C’s Waffles Family Restaurant in the city to see smoke starting to billow outside.
“By the time I got out here there were 15- to 20-foot flames coming out [of the building],” said Heck, 41, of Boardman.
Heck’s friend called in the fire to emergency workers, and Heck snapped some photos on his phone of the fire.
He told his friend, “We might be a little too close.”
The Struthers Police Department called in a fully involved fire at the end of Spring Street near Youngstown-Poland Road to the Struthers Fire Department on Memorial Day morning. Struthers Chair and Tent Rental used the building where the fire is believed to have originated.
Troyer Farms, a potato- chip company, used to operate the building, sources said.
Joe Lattanzio, owner of Struthers Chair and Tent, said Monday night all but four of his company’s 70 tents were destroyed in the blaze. Company employees recently built 22 new tents.
“This is the time of year we make our money,” he said.
Four other companies are pitching in to help Lattanzio with supplies and he’s waiting to hear from his insurance company. Events scheduled for this week and next are covered, he said.
Struthers Chair and Tent Rental moved into the Spring Street building about five months ago to allow more space for tent building, Lattanzio said. While the loss of the equipment is a blow, the owner is thankful no one was hurt.
Onlookers watched as hoses were strewn across Spring Street. Firefighters went onto the roof of the building, and a firefighter climbed a ladder to spray water on the structure. The firefighters had an ample supply of bottled water readily available on the hot morning.
“We were able to keep [the fire] to the building of origin,” Struthers Fire Chief Gary Mudryk said.
While firefighters scrambled to fight the fire, Denny Riley and several others hurried to rescue a 1943 antique Struthers firetruck and items inside a race shop that were stored in the building connected to where the fire began.
The section where those items were stored was not damaged by the fire.
“I just dropped the phone and came up,” Riley said, describing his reaction when he found out about the fire. “We are probably going to move everything out because you never know if that fire could rekindle.”
Three race cars, the firetruck, four race engines and several other items were among what was rushed out of the building to safety.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by city fire investigators. No injuries were reported, but the building is considered a loss. A dollar figure for the loss wasn’t available Monday.
In addition to the Struthers Fire Department, the Youngstown and Campbell fire departments and the Western Reserve Joint Fire District of Poland helped.
Contributor: Denise Dick, staff writer.