Sunday evening Allamakee Street blaze destroys pair of buildings, impacts others ...

The initial block of the east side of Allamakee Street in Waukon had multiple buildings destroyed and several others impacted by a fire that broke out Sunday evening, February 13 in the middle of the block. Around 6:30 p.m. the Waukon Fire Department was called to 9 Allamakee Street for smoke and flames emitting from the lower portion of the building that currently housed Tin, Rust & Harmony - a new business opened in December 2021 by owner Mindy Jones - and had previously housed Lucky Finds Consignment.

The Decorah Fire Department aerial truck (viewable in the first two photos at right) was called immediately to assist with the multiple-story structures involved in the blaze, helping douse flames from above while crews from area communities of Lansing and Waterville were also called in to assist in fighting flames from the street level both in back and in front of the buildings through window and door openings. Once the fire reached the attic/roofing structure of the initially involved building, it eventually worked its way into those same top-level areas in adjacent buildings to the north and south, resulting in significant structural damage to the Paws Up Pet Supplies building to the north. That new business had also just opened in November of 2021 and is owned by Waukon native Tracey Tepesch in what had been the long-time CotéColor Photography building. Both the Tin, Rust & Harmony building and the Paws Up Pet Supplies building were completely destroyed by the blaze and had to have a significant portion of their top levels knocked down in order for fire crews to more effectively battle the blaze (as evident in the lower photo taken Monday morning following the blaze).

The adjacent structure immediately to the south of the Tin, Rust & Harmony building housed a stairway to an apartment above the long-time Hill’s Plumbing & Heating business building owned by Dennis and Jamie Hill. While the stairway structure did suffer from extensive fire damage, fire crews were able to contain the southern travel of the fire to that structure, leaving the adjacent brick Hill building viable, according to fire officials, although it suffered significant smoke and water damage. Tenants of apartments above both the Hill building and the Tin, Rust & Harmony building were able to escape the fire safely, as no injuries were reported from the fire, but they did lose all of their belongings. Donations for those tenants are being accepted at Carol’s Closet on Spring Avenue in Waukon. The tenants include a mother and her three young sons ages three and under in the Tin, Rust & Harmony building, as well as the Hills’ son, who is in his early 20s and lived above the plumbing and heating shop.

The Steel Cow building adjacent to the north of the Paws Up Pet Supplies building was also able to avoid fire damage due to its thick brick walls, according to fire officials. The Steel Cow building, however, did sustain smoke damage, as did several other buildings within that same city block, although to a lesser degree the further away they were from the original fire source. Owned by Josh and Val Miller of Waukon, the Steel Cow building had just recovered from its own fire in early April of 2021.

Fire officials say that the cause of the blaze remains under investigation. Waukon Fire Chief Dave Martin explained that the State of Iowa Fire Marshal’s Office could not begin its investigation until the fire was completely extinguished and that process took nearly a full 24 hours, as the Waukon crew was called fully back into service at the scene Monday morning around 9:30 a.m. and again Monday afternoon around 2 p.m. for “hot spots” that flared up. Chief Martin said the multiple levels of roofing structure and additions made to the most heavily damaged buildings over the years of their existence made it much more difficult to fully extinguish the fire, as roof tar and some of the other materials used over the years would continue to smolder underneath the rubble hidden from view but eventually get hot enough to ignite another blaze.

With the help of a large excavator from Skyline Construction Monday afternoon, the remaining rubble was able to be sifted through to better expose any remaining hot spots, which were then fully extinguished. Initially, the four fire crews that were called upon to help fight the blaze were on the scene well past midnight Sunday, with the Waukon volunteer crew then rotating shifts to continue to pour water on the smoldering rubble into early Monday morning before the full Waukon crew was called back for that first “hot spot” dousing Monday morning.

Chief Martin said the State Fire Marshal’s Office will likely be able to begin fully conducting its investigation Wednesday of this week, with no official determination of cause or origin being able to be released until that investigation is complete. The night of the fire, an unidentified teenage boy was being heralded within the surrounding crowd of onlookers near the scene as the individual who called 9-1-1 to report the fire, with repeated mention that he first noticed the blaze in a stack of papers burning underneath the cash register area of the Tin, Rust & Harmony building’s ground floor, although that claim could not be confirmed by fire officials at any level without further investigation.

With the aerial truck and crews from the Decorah Fire Department providing a significant boost once again for what has turned out to be the third time within the past two years, including the Gus & Tony’s Pizza and Steakhouse fire in February 2020 and the Steel Cow fire in April 2021, Chief Martin also very much appreciates the assistance from the Lansing and Waterville fire crews, as well as the Waukon Police Department, Allamakee County Sheriff’s Department, Allamakee County Emergency Management and local street, highway and water crews. “Everybody did what they needed to do in order to help fight this fire,” he said. “We couldn’t do it without everyone doing their part.”

The amount of water utilized in fighting the blaze did pose some further problems for the City of Waukon water system, as pumps feeding the north water tower in the Allamakee County Fairgrounds could not keep up with the water demand and that tower was drained to a level that impacted water pressure throughout the town of Waukon. With that loss of pressure, a boil advisory was implemented for drinking water within the town of Waukon as a precautionary measure against any bacteria that may have leached into the system through empty or low level water system pipes or connections. As a result, classes in the Allamakee Community School District in Waukon were called off Monday, and several restaurants and other businesses were either closed or operating at limited capacity due to the lack of water.

As of press time Tuesday morning, February 15, City of Waukon officials were awaiting test results from water samples sent to a laboratory in Waterloo in order to be able to lift the boil advisory or keep it further in place and implement additional disinfecting processes.

Additional photos from the Sunday evening Allamakee Street blaze are available at the Photo Galleries link found on The Standard’s website, www.waukonstandard.com. This story will continue to be updated as information becomes available in future editions of The Standard or at www.waukonstandard.com.