A historic woodworking company near downtown went up in flames Friday afternoon in a four-alarm fire that caused $3 million in damage.
After escaping from the nearly 80-foot-high flames, employees at Jeffrey Cobabe and Associates united and vowed to rebuild the 120-year-old building located near 600 West and North Temple.
"The business is alive," said Jeff Cobabe, owner of the company that employs approximately 25 workers. "Monday is another day of work, business as usual."
The fire's cause is still under investigation, said Salt Lake City Assistant Battalion Chief Dennis McKone. He did say investigators don't believe eco-terrorism was involved.
John Jordan, vice president at Jeffrey Cobabe and Associates, said the blaze started at approximately 1:05 p.m. in the ceiling above a new molding machine, which has a dust collector system.
"It spread so fast, it's unbelievable," Jordan said. "In a matter of two minutes, the whole roof was on fire."
It was the third multimillion-dollar blaze in the Salt Lake Valley in the past 40 days. On July 16, investigators believe an arsonist set a six-alarm fire at a South Salt Lake paper products plant. Investigators placed the damage at the Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. at nearly $10 million. And last month, a group of environmental extremists claimed responsibility for a $1.5 million lumberyard arson fire in West Jordan.
On Friday, workers rushed into the flames, trying to save what they could of the fine pieces of woodwork inside, but Jordan said he stopped them because "it just wasn't worth the risk." Others workers tried to put out the blaze themselves to no avail with fire extinguishers.
The building, at 49 N. 600 West, housed the Salt Lake Mill & Lumber Co. from 1884 to 1999, when that firm became Jeffrey Cobabe and Associates, keeping the same facilities and employees.
Among the items lost in the blaze Friday were chairs specifically built for the LDS temple in Portland, Ore. The company specializes in furniture, including chairs, tables and desks, and one of its biggest clients is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jordan said. Furniture built at Cobabe can be found in LDS temples around the globe.
The company also recently worked on furniture for the Nauvoo Temple in Illinois.
"It's going up so fast, it's unbelievable," Jordan said as he watched the building burn. "It's a total tragedy, total tragedy."
Because of the state Pioneer Day holiday, only 12 employees were working Friday, Jordan said, down from the 25 who regularly work weekdays.
Nearly 85 firefighters from Salt Lake City and the Unified Fire Authority fought the fire. At one point, flames reached as high as 80 feet, McKone said. The blaze was so intense, firefighters shot water at their own trucks to keep them cool.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions as the intense fire swirled above.
"It looked like a blazing inferno," said onlooker Diana Sims from Rock Springs, Wyo.
Residents of the neighboring Citifront apartment building were evacuated within minutes of the fire. Janet Bateman, a security officer at the four-story apartment, said the year-old complex did not have a thorough evacuation plan. Bateman said she ran through the halls with police officers, knocking on doors and telling residents to move outside to the street.
Quincy Watkins was sleeping when police knocked on his apartment door. Watkins grabbed a shirt and his keys before running outside, then stopped at the parking garage to move his car to the street.
"Somebody came banging on my door while I was sleeping, drooling and everything," Watkins said. "It was hot out there. I mean, I was sweating."
Ten to 20 cars on the top floor of the apartment's parking garage were also damaged, McKone said. In addition, the apartment building sustained minor heat damage to an outside wall. Since numerous nearby power poles burned during the fire, many of the apartments at Citifront did not have electricity.
That left some residents seeking shelter from the American Red Cross, which set up a place to stay at Jackson Elementary School, 750 W. 200 North. Police took residents back one by one to Citifront to see if their apartments were in a good condition to stay the night.
Federal investigators and a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated Friday's fire.
Jeff Cobabe, the owner of the milling building, found solace in the smallest of things.
With wood charred to the ground and smoke billowing above, the sign that bears the company name survived the inferno.
"The building symbolizes the business, but it's not the business," Cobabe said. "Even if we have to search for a place to go, we'll be back."
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