GARY: ARSON WORLD (PART 5)
The Great Gary Arson of 1997 (Part 3)
October 13, 1997. Genesis Towers. 2am.
The evacuation of Genesis Towers started off chaotic. Embers as big as fists were flying off the senior citizen home. They landed on people — in their hair, on their clothes. Inside the building, things were far from ideal. The building was equipped with fire doors; which automatically locked behind them — making return trips that much harder. Firemen would enter a stairwell and the fire doors would shut and lock, trapping them until someone else opened the door. Only the main custodian had the master key to all the fire doors. Luckily for everyone he had an apartment in the building. He spent the entire night walking back and forth opening fire doors for emergency responders throughout the entire structure. Fire alarms blared in the hallways, making communication between residents and rescuers extremely difficult. Some firemen described the scene as “…one scary time. We didn’t know what was happening up on the roof”.
Rescuers banged on doors but some would not answer. Loved ones were awakened in the middle of the night and asked to come to the scene and physically force their elderly family members to leave. For those who could not walk, they were literally scooped up inside of their bedsheets and carted out. Stretchers weren’t being provided quickly enough. So, one by one, they were carried by hand step-by-step from the upper floors down to the ground. Buses and ambulances awaited them for transport. Before the Genesis Convention Center was opened up, able-bodied elderly residents took refuge inside of the bank building at 5th & Broadway. They desperately called their loved ones to come get them because smoke burned their eyes and they couldn’t see. Their clothes smelled like burned tar. It’s not hard to imagine them fearing the absolute worst.
Once the Genesis Center was opened, Genesis Towers residents were quickly hustled inside. As they waited, medical personnel tended to the sickly and took everyone’s blood pressure. There was confusion, fear and anger floating around. Earlier, at midnight, a call went out to the executive director of the Red Cross of Northwest Indiana. They quickly organized to serve the regions firemen responding to the melee in Gary. However, when Genesis Towers was called to be evacuated, they switched up and started helping with that. The Red Cross tended to the needs of all the elderly people in the complex. Cots, blankets and floor-mats were set up. The concession stand was raided for water, pop and coffee. Private citizens volunteering for the Red Cross took over serving rescuers. They served doughnuts, hot dogs, chili and Gatorade to help keep their energy up. “This is probably the largest mutual response fire I’ve ever seen,” said Steve Whitehead, the Red Cross executive director.
Mayor King popped in and out, checking on residents, every now and then he’d make a round through the rows speaking to folks who wanted to talk and give them information about events unfolding outside. Finally, at 4am, Mayor King announced residents could begin returning to their apartments. The firemen had put out the fire on the roof. 135 elderly people were successfully evacuated within two hours; with all back home by 5:30am. There were some minor injuries but nothing life threatening.
Downtown Gary. 5am.
Six hours after it began, emergency crews finally got their foot on the neck of the monster. Still, the fires burned well into the morning. Sunlight gave way to the true scope of the destruction. Three downtown blocks worth of buildings were destroyed, as well as a few buildings on a few peripheral blocks. Three city landmarks were burned to the ground, smoldering in huge piles of timber. Another 12 buildings that were either anchor restaurants, businesses or long abandoned properties were also either totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
To add insult to injury, it started to rain! People were walking around in an inch of gray mud, watching solemnly as light rain whipped around in the wind — which was still blowing quite hard. Raincoats and umbrellas dotted the scene as people from outside the city got word of Memorial Auditorium’s demise. Residents who were old enough to remember experiencing Memorial Auditorium gathered in front of it — crying and reminiscing about memories that went up in smoke in a blink of an eye. They stood proclaiming even though the building burned — ‘she’ did not fall. Of course this was emotion talking. ‘She’ did fall…fell into herself and died a horrible death. As the debris smoldered, demolition crews were already moving in. They focused on the most seriously damaged buildings first — that being Memorial, Goldblatt’s and Radigan Brothers. Goldblatt’s flamed on into Monday afternoon. Shell-shocked people gawked at the scene as crews worked.
The inside of Gary City Methodist was totally destroyed. Rain seeped into the newly opened up sanctuary and theater for the first time. The writing was already on the wall for the church — being abandoned for 20 years before being literally gutted in one night. “It seems that everything in this city that has history in it we lose,” — one person was quoted saying as he gazed at the hulk of Indiana limestone and burned timbers that was once a beautiful sanctuary. What is left over, we can thank the Hobart Fire Department for that.
AFTERMATH
City residents — unaware that a fire even occurred — greeted the news with mixed emotions. Some spoke of the fact that most properties burned were not being used anyway and the prospect of those destroyed buildings being torn down was a reason to be happy. That meant the city could expedite the total removal of all other abandoned structures downtown. A lot of the buildings that burned were on the city demolition list anyway — most were slated to be destroyed within the next month. The plan was to level one downtown block and make it available for developers. Mayor Scott King indicated the fires wouldn’t change the demolition schedule at all. Why would it have? Most residents were pessimistic; pointing out the dire situation Gary was in…and the fire might be a sign of harder times to come in the future.
Two days later, another large fire rose in Glen Park. It was Professional Touch Car Washing and Detailing — 236 W. Ridge Road, a building on the northwest corner of 35th & King Drive. It was intense and threatened cars, homes and businesses in its immediate vicinity. Crews were able to put it out and keep other buildings from burning by dousing them with lots of water. Investigators determined this fire was suspicious, and got them thinking back to the downtown fires two days before.
“With the one Sunday and this one, both abandoned buildings, you know they’re not accidental.” — Battalion Chief Percy Moton.
The next day, October 16th, a suspicious fire broke out at Spaulding Elementary School. A custodian found the fire blazing hot in an art room as he worked the night shift. He discovered a broken window and draperies blazing. Firemen avoided disaster by putting this fire out quickly. The school was older, had spacious hallways and was built with wood. There would have been lots of oxygen to fuel it. 10 days later, another suspicious fire was reported at June’s Soul Food, 20th & Broadway. The restaurant had just moved to Glen Park, so this building was abandoned as well.
HONORS
Praise was due to the 27 or so community fire departments that responded. “We had a pretty rough time last night,” Fire Chief Richard Gilliam was quoted saying. The understatement of the decade, I’m sure. “They came from all over, there were guys from everywhere and they helped tremendously. Those sentiments are echoed over the whole department,” Gary Capt. William Todd proclaimed. There were 28 ambulances. AMOCO Oil (BP) sent fuel and fire trucks. So did the Gary and Hammond civil defense units. US Steel donated buses and fire equipment. Without regional help and cooperation, the fires would have been way worse. Hundreds of lives were probably saved.
On October 29th, the Genesis Center was in celebration. Over 500 people showed up for a “thank you” dinner party. The City of Gary honored all of the firefighters and others who assisted Gary Fire Department on the night of the fires. “Lean On Me” was played on a piano as everyone sang along in conversation and laughter. Dinner and drinks were served and certificates of appreciation were given out.
“A night like tonight is nice, because this can be a thankless job and it’s nice to have a little recognition every once in a while.” — New Chicago Fire Captain Stuart Standish.
Demolition was completed a week after the fires, with debris hauling to be done in subsequent months. All buildings determined to be unsafe were gone forever…except for the front facade of Gary Memorial Auditorium and the entirety of what was left of Gary City Methodist. Engineers determined those two structures were safe to remain standing. Memorial’s front facade existed until 2020 to make way for low-income housing.
Stay tuned for the final part in the Great Gary Arson of 1997 series, where I address the origin, the investigation and the social impact of the fires.