GALESBURG, Ill. — Galesburg fire officials said they have been "unable to determine the cause" of a Monday morning structure fire at this time due to the amount of damage and instability of the building.
Around 10:07 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 19, firefighters with the Galesburg Fire Department responded to 149 E. Main St. for a structure fire. Smoke could be seen coming out of a third-floor window. The building consists of two businesses on the main level and also has seven residential units on the second and third floors.
Two pets died in the fire and one person went to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
On Tuesday night, crews began demolishing the top floor of the building after it was found its structural integrity was compromised due to fire damage.
"The bricks started to pull away from the main portion of the building, so there was an immediate concern with that," Fire Chief Randy Hovind said. "We took out that top parapet part. The parapet is where the roof stops and then you have the bricks that extend above and we took a little bit more than that. It's not quite surgical when you're trying to remove it with heavy machinery so we took off as little as possible to save as much of the structure as possible."
On Thursday, no demolition work was being done. The property management team and insurance companies will now decide how to move forward with the building.
Hovind estimates the building is about 100 years old. He hopes it can be saved.
"The City of Galesburg, the downtown district has a lot of history," he said. "I'm from here. I was born here, so a lot of those buildings have a lot of history that've been here for a very long time. We always want to try to work to keep those buildings in the best possible shape and to maintain our downtown area."
The city said it had previously received complaints from tenants in a unit on the second floor regarding the condition of the property. The city investigated the complaints through multiple rental inspections, according to a press release, and the property management company was working to remediate the complaints. This specific unit was empty at the time and is not where the fire originated. The city has not made a connection between the complaints and the fire.
East Main Street is down to one westbound lane and Prairie Street is closed to all traffic surrounding the building.
Galesburg fire officials are still investigating the fire.