Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Fire investigators with the Buffalo Fire Department are confident they have pinpointed the cause of Thursday's four-alarm fire that broke out at the Paul William Beltz building, located at 36 Church Street in Downtown Buffalo.
"It's looking like it was a stove in the kitchen on the second floor. That's we're looking at, that's what we suspected yesterday after interviewing some witnesses, and that was somewhat confirmed this morning," said Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo during a press briefing on Friday. "Our arson investigators were able to actually get in the building safely and confirm that actually one of the burners on the stove was in the 'on' position and it looked like there were some materials on top of the stove. We're pretty confident that's where the fire started."
While Thursday's fire has been talked about as an unfortunate incident, Renaldo says the silver lining is crews were able to limit the damage to two historic buildings that sit on either side of 36 Church Street, the Guarantay building and the Verizon building.
"We've got some of the best firefighters around, so we're pretty much ready for anything like this," Renaldo said. "Obviously large landmarks of Downtown Buffalo. That was the best part."
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Renaldo confirmed Friday there were two minor injuries to first responders over the duration of the incident. One firefighter went to the hospital for dehydration issues, while a responding officer suffered a shoulder injury.
Meanwhile, the fire has resulted in total devastation to the building, leading to an upcoming demolition of the site in the coming days.
"We gave the owners a grace period, so it looks like between mid- towards the end of next week that the building will be coming down," Renaldo said. "There's only a few companies in the area that have special equipment for a more precision demolition so we don't do any damage to the adjacent buildings. So we're steering them in that direction, and I'm sure it'll have a decent outcome, as best as can be expected at this point."
Buffalo Mayor Chris Scanlon is thankful for the response of the men and women of the Buffalo Fire Department on Thursday, and their work to ensure the massive fire did not spread to either the Guarantay or Verizon buildings.
"The building suffered catastrophic damage. Though it's in really bad shape, I think one of the blessings is, though, that it did not spread to the other two buildings, both registered landmarks," said the mayor on Friday. "Obviously, the architectural and historical significance of them play a major role in our city skyline as an attraction to people, architect buffs and things like that, who come into the City of Buffalo on a daily basis to check these buildings out. So thankfully, those buildings sustained very minimal damage."