Fire damages building in downtown Monroe

3/1/2005

MONROE - Fire caused an undetermined amount of damage yesterday morning to a downtown Monroe building, authorities said. No one was injured.

Witnesses spotted smoke emitting from a second-floor window at 8 East Front St. at about 8:30 a.m. The three-story building contains a single apartment unit on the second and third floors and a coffee house on the ground floor. Monroe firefighters confined the blaze to the second-floor kitchen, where the fire began, said city fire Marshal Jim Kansier.

Smoke spread to the apartment's third floor, Caf Classics on the first floor, Jones for Men, Inc., at 10 East Front, and Monroe House of Travel at 6 East Front, Mr. Kansier said.

The apartment's two female occupants were not at home when the blaze broke out. He said the fire's origin is not being considered as suspicious. The building is owned by Ron and Patricia Gruber of Ida.