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Peru Fire Department 5-11 Alarm Taneder Box Western Clock Company : Associated Press Posted Jan 03, 2012 @ 11:06 AM PERU — Firefighters have contained the blaze that destroyed part of a massive clock factory in northern Illinois, but officials say it may be a week before it is extinguished. Police Chief Doug Bernabei says the fire that broke out around midnight on New Year’s Eve at the Westclox complex in Peru is smoldering and then will erupt in flames. Bernabei says the city’s fire department and departments from 15 other communities had started battling the fire with aerial trucks on Monday. He says there is no danger of the fire spreading from the middle building to other buildings in the complex. The last of area residents evacuated from their homes were allowed to return Monday morning. Two teenagers were arrested charged with aggravated arson. Bernabei says there are no other suspects. The fire at a massive former clock factory that police say was deliberately lit provided an eerie backdrop for a northern Illinois city’s New Year’s celebrations, and despite the efforts of firefighters from throughout the area, the city landmark was destroyed. The blaze at the former Westclox Co. clock complex, which covers a two-by-four-block span of downtown Peru, began around the time people were counting down the last seconds of 2011, Gary Eccles, an engineer with the city’s fire department, told The Associated Press. By 11 a.m. Sunday, the fire was burning itself out but had destroyed the building and caused it to cave in on itself, he said. Karen Torri, a local resident, told The News Tribune that she was at party and was startled when she looked out the window. “Just as we were kissing, I looked out the window and saw the fireworks, but it wasn’t fireworks; it was fire engines,” she said. The only reported injury from the blaze was to a firefighter who was rushed to a hospital for emergency knee surgery, Eccles said. Police Chief Doug Bernabei said at a news conference Sunday that two teenage boys, a 15-year-old from Peru and a 17-year-old from La Salle, were charged with aggravated arson. No further information about the teens was immediately available. The fire, which caused propane tanks to explode, prompted a mandatory evacuation of homes near the complex. But Eccles said that by 11 a.m., nearly everyone was allowed to return home. Those who weren’t were being kept out because the smoke from the fire was blowing directly at their homes. Dana Slawter, who recently moved to Peru from Philadelphia, said she had just returned home from a party when she was told to leave. She said she had just begun learning the factory’s history and that it would be sad if it went up in smoke. “It’s upsetting,” Slawter, cradling her Chihuahua, Cinnamon, told The News Tribune. The building, a landmark in the city that once housed Westclox Co.’s clock and watch-making operations decades ago, currently houses several small businesses, including a salon, a photo business, a lab and others, the newspaper reported. Westclox built 44 structures at the complex from 1910 until 1956, then closed in 1980. A group of investors bought the building and sold it to developers in 2006, who said they planned to convert it into a retail and convention center while maintaining its history integrity. The National Park Service in 2007 deemed the building eligible for the National Registry of Historic Places “because of its significant contributions to the social and economic development of Peru and the nation,” the newspaper reported.

Peru Fire Department 5-11 Alarm Taneder Box Western Clock Company

Associated Press Posted Jan 03, 2012 @ 11:06 AM PERU — Fire ...

Updated: Feb 12, 2012 6:14pm PST