Helmet Cam Captures West Virginia Blaze
JEFFREY ALDERTON
Cumberland Times-News (Maryland)
KEYSER, W.Va. -- A West Virginia state fire marshal was expected here Monday to begin investigating the cause of Saturday's fire that destroyed the Comcast building on Main Street.
The 9:30 p.m. fire, handled by the Keyser Volunteer Fire Department and various assisting fire companies, disrupted video and Internet service to an unspecified number of Comcast customers in the Keyser service area. Two firefighters suffered apparent minor injuries in the incident.
The fire reportedly caused a loss estimated at $200,000 to the building and $100,000 to Comcast communications equipment....Continue Reading
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The building at 55 North Main Street served as a residence prior to being bought by Telemedia, which reportedly leased it to Comcast. Only one room of the two-story wood frame was occupied, according to Assistant Keyser Fire Chief Chris Paitsel, who is also a Keyser police officer.
Paitsel said preliminary investigation indicated the fire was suspicious in nature and apparently had two points of origin. However, it will be the fire marshal's office that will officially determine if the fire was deliberately set.
Comcast customers in the Keyser area reportedly had their television service restored at about 9 p.m. Sunday. Internet customers were being returned to service Monday morning, according to Keyser City Administrator Deborah Pamepinto, who spoke with a Comcast official late Monday morning.
Saturday's fire caused minor damage to the nearby M&T Bank building and Reed's Drug Store.
Pamepinto said, "I hate to see another building in downtown Keyser destroyed by fire. We hope to be able to find out what Comcast intends to do with the building. It's a big concern for the mayor and council and myself."
Jody Doherty, Comcast vice president of public relations in Pittsburgh, said a team of company workers established another "hub" to restore service to the affected customers. She declined to specify the number of customers involved in the outage.
"Our guys worked really hard to get equipment in from other areas and to rebuild that hub. We are talking about dozens of people involved in getting our customers back in service," she said.
Doherty also said Comcast does not own the building where the fire occurred. She said insurance adjustors were en route to the Keyser location to assess the loss in equipment.
She said the company established its communications hub at Keyser in a separate garage building off North Main that was unaffected by the fire. She also said the company will be looking at various locations in Keyser to establish a permanent hub site.
As to the cause of the Fourth of July fire, Doherty said, "We're waiting to hear what their investigation reveals." She declined further comment.
