March 22, 2001

PRESS RELEASE

To: Newsroom

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer

Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Downtown Fire Causes Scare

A fire on the roof of the old Capri Lounge building at 620 Milam Street caused some tense moments for Shreveport firefighters this evening just before 5:00 p.m. Fire Communications said they received several calls to the 911 center reporting smoke coming from the building. When fire crews arrived from the department’s downtown Central Fire Station, clouds of white smoke could be seen coming from the back of the building’s roof line. Fire officials rushed to raise a ladder to the roof of the four story structure to survey and attack the fire.

As a ladder truck was placed into position, several firefighters scaled its metal stairs and reached the roof of the structure, finding a fire in and around a partial maintenance floor. The area, which looked like an attached building, was approximately twenty feet wide and stretched the width of the structure. After tearing away several pieces of the structures metal siding, firefighters found the origin of the fire and quickly extinguished it. Tenants from a nearby apartment building told fire officials that there had been a fire earlier in the day at the building and that roofers working on the structures extinguished it. Note - the fire department did not receive a call reporting that earlier fire.

Fire investigators are currently on the scene trying to determine the exact cause. With apartments right next door to the building, officials warned that this type of fire could have been catastrophic had it occurred in the middle of the night, when the chances of someone noticing the smoke would have been remote.

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