Fire damages historic landmark in Lemont

By Mike Joseph

LEMONT — An electrical fire early Monday heavily damaged a historic building in downtown Lemont and tied up drive-time traffic before 50 firefighters from four companies stopped the blaze and saved the structure.

CDT/Nabil K. Mark

A structure fire burned the building along Pike Street in Lemont early Monday, June 15, 2009. CDT/Nabil K. Mark

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“The Alphas within five minutes — if they hadn’t gotten here, the place would be gone,” said Joe Rishel, owner of the property at 921 Pike St. “We can’t say enough about what they did.”

The heart of the fire was in the second-floor area of a photography studio and a hair salon, two of the businesses in the building, said State College police Lt. John Wilson, Centre Region assistant fire marshal.

Rishel owns the principal business in the building, Complete Floor Covering of Lemont, which was mostly spared from damage and which he said may reopen in a few days. The building houses six business in all. The big gray wood-frame structure at the intersection of Pike Street, Elmwood Street, Boalsburg Road and Branch Road was a stopping place on the Underground Railroad that helped fugitive slaves from the south escape to Canada, Rishel and his wife, Diane, said. Gov. Thomas Mifflin once spoke in the home, Joe Rishel said.

“So it has a lot of history,” he said.

A motorist passing by at about 6 a.m. Monday saw smoke rolling out along the building seam between the second and third floors and phoned in the alarm, Alpha Fire Company Chief Stan Clouser said. Firefighters from Pleasant Gap, Bellefonte and Boalsburg responded as well.

The building contains no living quarters, Clouser said. No one was inside when the fire broke out and no one was injured, Clouser said.

Diane Rishel said the electrical fire broke out between the first-story ceiling and the second-story floor.

The fire was kept for the most part to the second story, though in places it poked through the ceiling into the third-floor attic, Clouser said. The spread of the fire was limited because a lot of the inside doors were already closed, Clouser said.

The Pike Street crossroads at Boalsburg Road is Lemont’s busiest intersection, and drive-time traffic poured onto narrow residential streets such as Shady Drive. The main roads were reopened by 9:30 a.m.

Rishel, who bought the building about 25 years ago, said the property is heavily insured and he intends to repair it. He said about two years remain on the mortgage payments. Ten years ago he spent $75,000 on outside renovations.

Wilson said foul play has been ruled out but would not confirm the electrical cause of the fire, pending further investigation.

“The structure is sound and repairs can be made,” Wilson said. “The fire department did one heck of a job to save this place.”

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.