Fire ravages Whiskey Row buildings

The side of a building on Louisville's historic Whiskey Row collapsed after a large blaze erupted there Monday afternoon.

Three buildings were damaged in the fire — 111, 113 and 115 West Main Street — all part of a project to redevelop the historic buildings into new lofts, retail and restaurant space called 111 Whiskey Row.

The fire was reported at about 4:30 p.m. in the same block the Brown-Forman Corp. plans to create the Old Forester distillery experience. Those buildings were spared from damage in Monday's fire, according to one of the developers.

• UPDATED: Fire crews still battling Whiskey Row blaze (as of 8:25 a.m.)
• UPDATED: List of downtown street closures Tuesday (as of 6:25 a.m.)

The fire backed up traffic on First and Main streets as smoke billowed out of the building. Nearby businesses, including two Humana buildings, were evacuated.

Lesly Bradshaw, who works at Impellizzeri's Pizza across the street, said everyone evacuated the business around 5:30 p.m. She said she watched the firetrucks come in, and "the next thing you know, it's blazing."

Louisville Fire Capt. Salvador Melendez confirmed the fire started in the basement of one of the buildings and no one was injured.

Melendez said the buildings experienced a couple of collapses, including floors and outer walls. He was confident the fire wouldn't spread any further late Monday, although he expected firefighters to stay through the night.

"Where you see it is where it's staying," Melendez said.

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More than 80 firefighters were working to extinguish the fire Monday night, and Melendez said they would rotate in shifts through the night.

Firefighters initially attacked the blaze from inside one of the buildings entering from Washington Street, according to officials. The first crews knocked down a wall of fire before hearing an explosion and withdrawing in a defensive operation.

Some construction personnel were working in the building a few hours prior to the fire being reported, Melendez said, but "that is not to say they might have done something to start the fire." He said officials know there was someone using power tools in the building, but they don't know what kind.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer arrived on the scene later that evening and surveyed the outside of the smoldering buildings with developers and firefighters. He also viewed the fire department's drone cameras that were inspecting the damages.

Fischer said the city is grateful to its first responders who gained control over the blaze and were able to save a valuable part of the city's history without any lives being lost.

"It's a setback, but I can tell you the people who are involved with this have faced tougher challenges than this," Fischer said. "A fire might destroy this structure, but it's not going to destroy the history of our city or our ability to rebound at the same time."

The three buildings hit by the bulk of the fire are owned by Main Street Revitalization.

Attorney Craig Greenberg, a co-developer with Main Street Revitalization said it's far too early to tell how much damage the buildings have incurred or the cost to repair them.

"I can assure you this team is committed to revitalizing Whiskey Row, so we will continue with our efforts," Greenberg said.

The buildings were built around 1857 and used to store barrels of whiskey produced at numerous distilleries in the area. For years preservationists have fought with developers to save the buildings from demolition and lobbied city leaders to salvage the historic storefronts along Main Street, which has the second largest concentration of cast-iron buildings behind only New York City's SoHo district.

"I can say for sure we will work to preserve what is still there, these are national treasures," said Martina Kunnecke, president of the Neighborhood Planning & Preservation advocacy group, who cried as she watched firefighters combat the blaze into Monday evening. "We will work to find out what brought about these fires and go from there."

Reporters Phillip M. Bailey, Sheldon S. Shafer, Gina Kim and Janica Kaneshiro contributed to this story.