59 South Carroll Street
As Jason and I were driving home from dinner last night, we noticed a large plume of smoke moving quickly over the downtown Frederick area. My first thought, of course, was smoke monster, but that’s because I’m still not cured of my LOST-brain. We followed the smoke until we arrived at the scene. Several streets were completely blocked off. We parked the car and began walking. Then we realized that everyone in downtown Frederick had the same idea and the massive crowds became more a spectacle than the actual fire.
The fire, which completely destroyed The General Engineering Company building, a beautiful old thing that was used as a warehouse during the Civil War, took six hours and 25 fire companies to extinguish. The source? The Gazette reports it was the result of a malfunctioning refrigerator. Even though Jason had pretty important business to attend to today, we hung around with the crowds for about an hour an a half to watch the flames eat away at the roof of the building. Luckily, no one was in the building at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries.
I didn’t have my camera with me, so I snapped some iPhone pics. I wish I had taken a picture of the crowd on Carroll creek, everyone out with their dogs and cameras and neighbors to mill around and vie for the best spot. The whole event somehow sparked a giant downtown block party that was surprisingly un-somber.
We started out on East St., and we made our way over to the Carroll St. bridge right in front of the Delaplaine. But not before spotting these two young lovers taking in the fire from afar. Romantic.
We made it to the bridge, then pushed our way to the front.
When everyone was forced off of the bridge, we managed to secure a spot behind the building, where we watched a portion of the roof cave in as it started to get dark out.
It was all very fascinating; I had never seen such an extreme fire in such an intimate setting, and I was amazed by the tenacity of those flames. Without getting overly profound, I’ll just say it was sad and beautiful. I hate to see a historical building go.
