Stubborn fire takes down two East Moline downtown businesses; no one hurt

Aug. 2--EAST MOLINE -- A fire that simply would not go out raged on for more than three hours in downtown East Moline Thursday afternoon.

By the time it was over on 15th Avenue, the six units in the Johnson Apartments plus the adjacent business, Eds Used Appliances, appeared to be ruined.

However, no residents were injured. One firefighter was taken to the hospital, and he appeared not in need of oxygen when he was loaded into the ambulance.

The original fire call came in about 11:40 a.m., said Rob DeFrance, East Moline fire chief.

By the time the fire was under control, approximately 40 firefighters had battled the blaze, with fire departments from East Moline, Silvis, Moline, the Rock Island Arsenal, the city of Rock Island, Hampton and Bettendorf all playing a role.

The Johnson Apartments, 1116-15th Ave., East Moline, a brick structure, is where the call for a structure fire, came from, said DeFrance.

"When we arrived, we had a heavy fire out the back of the apartment building on the second floor and all the windows out the back," DeFrance said. "So that was pretty well advanced.

"The crews went in and advanced to the second floor and worked as long as they could until we had to pull them out. We just couldn't put enough water on the fire to knock it down."

DeFrance did not know the cause of the fire, and said the investigation could take days.

The fire eventually spread to the adjacent building, Eds Used Appliances at 1112-15th Ave. It appeared first to reach its roof, then engulfed the interior. The top of the front wall eventually tumbled down, as firefighters blasted it with water, possibly in an attempt to make the fire easier to fight.

The brick structure at the Johnson Apartments was a double-edged sword in terms of fighting the fire, officials said.

"We call this ordinary construction," DeFrance explained. " These downtown buildings, we call them ordinary, but what it is is actually brick or masonry walls, wood floor joists.

"Basically it's a wood structure contained inside that block. That block is great from keeping fire from spreading, but also does a great job of keeping our water from getting to the source of the fire, the wood.

"So this is typical of downtown fires where we have this old, historic type construction. They can be very, very stubborn and difficult to get to, and dangerous. They can collapse without warning."

The firefighting also had another challenging occurrence. Early on while fighting the fire, a nearby water main broke. DeFrance would not say whether this was caused by the pressure of water being utilized to fight the fire, which he admitted can be the case sometimes.

"It had surprisingly no impact on the fire operations," he said.

Fire hydrants are about 500 feet apart in East Moline, DeFrance said. So that problem further aided by 1,000 foot of hose on most trucks, was an easy fix, he said.

As the fire continued, Johnson Apartments owner Louie Dooley was not sure what the value of his apartments were. He planned to meet with his insurance agent sometime later Thursday.

But he knew despite the continuous flames and billowing smoke that what mattered most was OK.

"Everybody's out," he said. "That's the main thing. Nobody's hurt. Everything can be replaced, as long as everybody's out."

Resident Johnnie Ruth Brown, whose been a resident most of Dooley's 21 years of ownership, but was not home when it started, agreed.

"I am surprised," Brown said of the fire. "But I am thankful also that everybody got out.

"Hallelujah, we are all here."

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