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Fire in the Narrow Building!

By on September 14, 2009 in Buildings, Downcity

There was a fire in The Narrow Building on Washington Street this afternoon.

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Photos by Jef Nickerson

I took these photos around 5:45pm and the fire seemed to be out. Mathewson, Washington, and Union Streets were shut down and the URI Building had been evacuated. No word on the cause or amount of damage. Work had been taking place in the building in recent weeks.

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7 Responses to Fire in the Narrow Building!

  1. Jef Nickerson September 14, 2009 at 6:28 pm #

    ProJo Blog has a post about the fire. Not much more info.

    The fire appeared to race up into a third-floor apartment and firefighters could be seen spraying water on the window framing on both floors and eventually ripping out those charged supports. Firefighters also cut a hole through the flat-roof building to fight the blaze.

  2. Corey September 14, 2009 at 6:55 pm #

    This was one of the buildings involved in that bogus court ruling back when the city was sued a few years ago, briefly voiding the entire historic district downtown. The judge, in the same ruling, blocked the demolition of the building itself, since the owner wanted to knock it down to expand the parking lot behind it directly up to the street. I call this a suspicious fire, but then again, who wouldn’t?

    On a personal note, two of my friends, both incredible artists, lived in this building. It’s incredibly sad for them to have lost all their work.

  3. Marc Doughty September 14, 2009 at 9:44 pm #

    I work with one of the owners of Downtown Liquors, maybe I can get the full scoop from him tomorrow.

  4. Jef Nickerson October 2, 2009 at 5:47 pm #

    David Brussat has a column in the ProJo about the Arnold (“Narrow”) Building. What he says about the insidiousness of surface parking is of course spot on, but even more so is what Beth had to say when she wrote about David’s column over on the Dose:

    I go downtown frequently, night and day, and I have never not found a parking space eventually; and often right away and very near my target. The people who say they never go downtown because there’s no parking never go anywhere anyway. And there is so parking.

    Amen! Sistah!

  5. jencoleslaw October 2, 2009 at 10:18 pm #

    Well, clearly she hasn’t heard about The Parking Crisis! I am away from Providence now, but during downtown’s heyday (2007?) I never had trouble finding parking, day or night. Maybe I’d have to park a block or two away, or maybe a street over, but so?

  6. Jef Nickerson January 20, 2011 at 1:52 pm #

    David Brussat writes in the ProJo about the Edgewood Yacht Club and the Providence Revolving Fund’s possible loan to the owner the Narrow Building.

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  1. Flickr Finds: Narrow Building Fire at Greater City: Providence - September 15, 2009

    […] Fire in The Narrow Building [GC:PVD] « Smith-Mathewson Building (aka where the Downcity Diner used to […]

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