One of Logansport’s remaining homes went up in flames early Friday morning.
Logansport Fire Department was called to a structure fire at 406 10th St. at 3:16 a.m.
When the firefighters arrived, noticeable flames were coming from the roof top.
Fire investigator Ted Franklin, who was also called in to help fight the fire, said the first personnel on the scene began calling for backups.
“They started calling for help immediately,” he said. “They knew they had problems right away.”
In all, 26 firefighters responded to the scene to help knock down the flames, which took until 8 a.m. It took another four hours to extinguish all the hot spots.
When firefighters started working the blaze, they entered the building to make sure the residents of its seven occupied apartments safely exited the building.
The men began pulling the ceiling down from the inside, which exposed the fire in the attic. After spraying the flames in the northern portion of the attic, Franklin said heavy smoke and an orange glow was spotted in the south portion of the attic.
Due to a wall dividing the attic, firefighters were unable to directly spray water on the remaining flames.
“The fire in the southern section became so intense, it completely burned the roof away,” he said. “Towards the north, the ceiling collapsed, but still exists.”
Firefighters were able to contain most of the fire to the attic area, but as the roof collapsed the second floor caught on fire.
“Every apartment on the second floor suffered fire damage,” Franklin added. “The entire first floor suffered water damage.”
Franklin said the fire started in a southeast apartment, before extending into the attic. He’s ruled the cause as electrical in nature and believes it started in an electrical distribution box.
He estimated the total damage at approximately $175,000. No one was hurt as a result of the fire and no other noticeable damage was sustained by surrounding properties.
Firefighters returned to the scene shortly before 9 p.m. Friday when a hot spot rekindled. They expected that could happen again due to the roof and second floor being sandwiched together..
The fire is still under investigation.
From what Franklin was told, none of the occupants had renter’s insurance.
The fire was one of the worst the department has had in while, Franklin added.
“I say that because of the number of those displaced, the amount of fire when we arrived and the number of firefighters,” he said. “We brought all of our equipment with the exception of one truck.”
According to an article published in “Old Homes of Indiana” written by Mary Shultz, the historic house was built in the early 1850s by a pioneer merchant named Lemon, who eventually left town soon after building the home.
In 1861, Dr. James Madison Justice purchased the house after moving to Logansport from Camden, where he practiced medicine for 20 years. In addition to practicing medicine and managing farming interests, Dr. Justice was also active in politics. He served as a member of the Logansport City Council from 1862 until 1871.
The home remained the same from the time Dr. Justice purchased it until the time of his death in 1894. When he passed away, his son, Dewitt C. Justice, a local attorney, moved his family in.
During his first year living in the home, Dewitt Justice added a large southern addition. At that time, the home consisted of 22 rooms. A large open porch supported by a series of columns went around the north and west sides.
His daughter, former Cass County Historical Society curator Daisey Beuret, also lived in the home for a period of time.
By 3:30 p.m. Friday, building commissioner Gary Hostetler said the entire structure was unsafe.
“My opinion is, it’s in pretty bad shape,” he said.
After an inspection, Hostetler said there was a possible chance of the east wall collapsing.
Franklin said if the building collapsed, there was a good possibility it would fall into a neighboring residence. The insurance company hired a crew that braced the first-floor portion of the wall so it wouldn’t collapse and tore down the second-floor portion of the rear wall Friday.
A decision on whether to save the house or to tear it down had not been made Friday afternoon, but Franklin said it didn’t look promising.
“I don’t know how they are going to save it,” he said.
• Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at (574) 732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com
