One person was pulled from an abandoned building on fire on Kanawha Boulevard East this morning.
The fire was reported at 1420 Kanawha Blvd. East, at the old Capitol Paging building, at about 4:15 a.m.
Tim Griffith, shift commander for the Charleston Fire Department, said flames were through the roof when firefighters arrived.
"It pretty much destroyed the whole house," he said.
Griffith said one man was pulled out the back door of the building. Emergency responders wanted him to go to the hospital to be checked for potential smoke inhalation, but the man refused.
He said the man worried his friend may have possibly been in the building as well, but no one else was found.
The fire was under control by about 6:30 a.m. Griffith said that because of safety concerns based on the current state of the building, firefighters and Charleston Building Commissioner Tony Harmon made the decision to demolish it. Work began at about 7:30 a.m.
Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire.
Firefighters had quickly assumed the fire was suspicious, since the building was vacant.
But while one person was detained, Sgt. J.A. Hunt of the Charleston Police Department said the fire has not been ruled arson and no one has been arrested.
Rich Simmons, administrative chief for the Charleston Fire Department, said he suspects the fire was likely an accidental fire started by a homeless person. He said the site is a common shelter for the homeless.
He said the condemned building has been on fire several times in the past couple years. One of those fires was on Christmas Day 2015.
The 1400 block of Kanawha Boulevard East was shut down following the fire but reopened by about 11:30 a.m., according to a Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatcher. The intersection of Ruffner Avenue and Kanawha Boulevard was also closed and has since reopened.
Reach Erin Beck at
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