EASTON, Pa. — Dozens of firefighters raced to the old Dixie Cup building in Wilson Borough early Friday as smoke billowed from the structure.
A working industrial fire was dispatched around 6:42 a.m. in the area of South 24th Street and Washington Boulevard — a fire that Wilson Borough Fire Chief Joe Sipel labeled supicious.
Sipel said the fire was brought under control around 7:15 a.m. and largely contained to a section of the building's roof.
"We knocked a majority of the flames down. It's just going to be a long time digging everything out and making sure nothing is smoldering," he said.
Sipel said the building is mostly empty and there was no firefighting inside.
Investigators deemed the blaze suspicious because there's no electric service in the building or other heat sources that may have sparked a fire, he said.
"It's going to take some time," he said of the investigation being led by Wilson Borough Fire Department, with assistance from state police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "We haven’t gone through the neighborhoods to see if anyone has any cameras that would possibly have picked up anything. We're just kind of going through everything now."
Firefighters in the morning doused the structure from four aerial ladders, focused mostly on the top floor and roof on the south side of the complex facing Butler Street.
Thirteen fire departments and roughly 60 or more firefighters responded to the call, Sipel said.
The fire was first spotted on the roof by someone at the nearby Wawa on South 25th Street, the chief said.
Building slated to become apartments
The four-story, 641,000-square-foot building has been on track to become a 405-apartment mixed-use complex.
Building owner Brian Bartee of Skyline Investment Group said he was thankful for firefighters' response and quick work to put out the blaze.
"I'm just really grateful for the fire department," he said. "They're the real heroes."
Bartee said asbestos removal work has been ongoing in the building, but not on the top floor near the roof. The building has no electrical service.
Sipel said it was too early to determine a cause for the fire.
Developers recently had described the building as largely "gutted" with basic mechanical systems that are either dysfunctional, removed, and/or antiquated. They said that even though windows are partially unsecured, the building was otherwise structurally sound and dry.
Bartee watched the firefighting effort from a parking lot with the building's longtime former owner, Joseph Reibman.
They said they've been working together as Skyline Investment Group's plans have progressed in Wilson Borough.
Bartee said the fire won't be a setback to those plans.
"We won't push anything back at all. We have to do demo work on the roof. No one wants something like this to happen but it won't affect (the plans) at all," he said.
The triangular lot beside 25th Street, about a third of an acre, will become a public park designed to house the giant cup sculpture currently perched atop the aging building.
