Mill St. Structure Fire

At 1:34pm the Montgomery County Emergency Communication Center dispatched Crawfordsville Fire Department Units to the address of 802 Mill St. for a report of smoke coming from a window and an audible smoke detector sounding. The location is a vacant two story Church with a basement that formerly housed the One Way Pentacostal Apostolic Church:

Battalion 1 first arrived at the scene within 4 minutes at 1:38pm and advised of smoke showing from the structure. Battalion 1 marked the incident as a working structure. Crews made entry into the structure finding light smoke conditions on the first floor and basement with a small fire located in the basement. Crews had water on the fire within 5 minutes of arrival on scene while other crews preformed an aggressive primary search of the basement and first floor.

No victims were located inside the structure during the search. Smoke conditions at the roof continued to worsen with heavy smoking now coming from all eaves of the structures roof. After an approximate 15-minute offensive interior attack the Incident Commanded deemed the structure unsafe and evacuated all firefighters from the structure. Fire crews then switched to a Defensive Attack utilizing hand lines and elevated water streams to attack the fire from the outside.

Assisting at the scene was Waynetown Fire Department, Madison Township Fire Department, Crawfordsville Police Department, Indiana State Fire Marshalls Office, CEL&P, Indiana Water Company and Center Point Energy.

The structure is considered to be a total loss with estimated damages of $150,000. The cause of the fire remains under investigation at this time.