TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – The R.A. Gray Building in downtown Tallahassee was closed Friday after a fire forced employees to evacuate Thursday.
Cleanup crews were on site Friday blowing water off the exterior balcony, along with several repair trucks.
The Tallahassee Fire Department said timing was everything when it came to getting the fire under control.
The Florida Department of State posted on social media Friday that everything inside the building is secure.
While there is some minor damage to the facility, the core collections in the State Archives of Florida, the Museum of Florida History and the State Library remain safe.
TFD said high-rise fires aren’t something crews respond to often, but they train for them. They say having the right protocols and prevention in place helped them get the fire under control quickly.
“Prevention is the key, if you know what to do when that emergency happens,” Deputy Chief Richard Jones said. “So, by teaching everyone that lives in your residence or works in your building, you know, how to get out, what are the most safest means and practice that, then in the end when it does happen like yesterday, it all comes together and works very well.”
Jones said firefighters broke into the walls when they got inside the building to see where the fire was moving to get ahead of it and prevent it from spreading further into the building.
They also used tarps to help limit water and smoke damage inside.
“If we were to go to someone’s home or a business like this where there’s documents, computers, valuables, things that are priceless, we want to go ahead and try to cover those up with tarps and prevent water damage, smoke damage, the best we can,” Jones explained. “Yesterday, with a building like that that had some really priceless and important items in it we do our best to make sure we preserve that at all cost.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
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