Owasso fire damages four businesses

BY RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Monday, January 07, 2013
1/07/13 at 1:51 PM

OWASSO – Authorities are investigating a downtown fire that heavily damaged four businesses, caused street closures and delayed rush-hour traffic early Monday.

Crews were called out about 5:45 a.m. to a building at 76th Street North and Main Street, Battalion Chief Shane Atwell said.

The blaze damaged a pool supply store, automotive shop, glass shop and boxing club in the roughly 13,220-square-foot building, said Deputy Fire Chief David Hurst.

No one was injured in the fire, which was contained by mid-morning, Atwell said.

He added that the fire wasn’t suspicious and started in the southwest corner of the building.

“There are a couple of air conditioning units that sit on the back side,” Atwell said. “That’s where all the electricity and gas come in. That’s where it started for the most part, where we took initial attack. It’s probably something involved in there.”

For some time after daybreak, a large plume of smoke hovered above the city. Blocking off the street immediately around the fire caused traffic back-ups on 76th Street North, 86th Street North and nearby U.S. 169.

Owasso Public Schools, in session Monday for the first time since the holiday break, sent out an text alert, notifying parents that buses could run an hour late because of traffic delays.

An apartment complex northwest of the scene was evacuated for a while when firefighters learned the pool supply store contained a large volume of chlorine.

“We established a water source on the chlorine, basically turning it into bleach instead of having a gas flying through the air,” Atwell said. “It never got into a serious situation. Once we found out that Dolphin Pools had 8,000 pounds of chlorine delivered (Sunday), we immediately adjusted to that situation before it became an inhalation hazard for anybody that might be downwind.”

Atwell was unable to provide a damage estimate early Monday.

Associated Images:

MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World