Fires At South Side Storage Facility May Be Suspicious
SOUTH SIDE (KDKA)- Investigators are looking into the cause of an early Monday morning fire at a South Side storage facility.
According to officials at the scene. the fire started around 2:30 a.m. in several units at the Stash & Store facility. The business is located at the intersection of of South 24th and Josephine Streets.
The facility offers storage for personal use and commercial use.
"We have seven units that were involved in the fire," said Battalion Chief James Dolan. "Multiple others with smoke damage. The areas of the units were in different areas, so it leans towards being on the suspicious side."
Stash and Store Owner Gary Rohm was told that nine units were damaged by fire and smoke, but thinks there will be additional damage reports.
He was contacting tenants Monday morning and hopes that many of them are insured.
"We aren't really responsible for the contents, but I think we'll be working with some people to correct some of their problems," Rohm said.
Firefighters said they had some trouble when they first arrived on scene.
"Just gaining access to them. They had to cut some of the doors with electric saw, gas saw. Once they got access to them, they went out pretty quickly," said Dolan.
Rohm said one of the security lights on their property was cut. So was the fence surrounding the lot as well as several locks. However, Rohm was unsure if that was possibly done by the responding crews rushing to get the fire out.
Regardless, they are working to protect the property until repairs are made.
"We are providing additional security so there's no additional damage," Rohm said.
The storage facility is right beside a parking lot used to store school buses. None of the buses were damaged.
Investigators will be looking into the possibility of any surveillance video in the area to help their investigation.
Meanwhile, the fire remains under investigation
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