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Downtown building evacuated due to fire

Plum and West 3rd Streets have reopened
Downtown Fire
Posted at 9:08 AM, Jan 31, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-31 12:24:04-05

CINCINNATI — Crews evacuated a Downtown building after it caught fire Thursday morning.

The Cincinnati Fire Department responded to the fire at about 9 a.m. at 312 Plum St. First responders evacuated the building at about 9:05 a.m. Crews reopened Plum and West 3rd Streets at about 10:45 a.m. They had been closed as crews worked to extinguish the fire.

Crews had the fire under control at about 9:16 a.m. and by late morning the focus shifted to clearing a large amount of smoke from the building, said Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Lakamp.

"We had a lot of smoke that was generated from the fire that we’re working now to evacuate throughout the building," Lakamp said.

Crews are using large fans on ladder trucks to remove the smoke. No injuries have been reported.

The fire department evacuated people to another office building so they wouldn't have to stand in the cold. Cincinnati Metro is providing buses to house people who have been evacuated. The firefighters also kept the weather in mind when putting out the initial flames.

"We didn’t stretch any hose lines from the apparatus," Lakamp said. "We used the internal standpipe so we don’t have any water on the street outside."

Lakamp said fire investigators are at the scene. A cause of the fire has not been determined.