Coleman Loop Road Structure Update
 
By Member Jeff Cabe
June 24, 2024
 

At 23:22 hours on Saturday June 22nd, B-Shift was dispatched to a report of a commercial building fire at 1515 Coleman Loop Road. Engine 231 arrived on scene within 4 minutes and found heavy fire involvement of the Bootstrap Brands building. The crew from Engine 231 laid a large diameter supply line from a hydrant, made entry and located intense heat and heavy smoke conditions throughout the structure. Hose lines were deployed to the roof and interior of the building to control the fires. Incident Command was established and a request for the Orange County Tanker Taskforce went out. The task force brought an additional 16,000 gallons of water to the scene. Crews worked throughout the night and day on Sunday to extinguish hot spots and hidden fires.
Due to the volume of fire and the delay in notification to the fire department, portions of the roof had began to collapse under the weight of the air conditioners.
Businesses occupying the building have equipment and stock that is currently salvageable so the decision was made to trench cut the built up roof materials in an effort to contain the fires burning between the roofing layers. Currently, the fire is above the metal roof decking and under the top layer of roofing membrane. The roofing materials continue to smolder and flame up periodically.
Once given clearance by the investigators and insurance companies, fire crews will work with the demolition contractor to fully extinguish the remaining hot spots.
The response to this fire included ten fire agencies along with Orange County Fire Marshals, Orange County EMS, Orange County Sherriff's Office, NC Office of State Fire Marshal engineers and investigators, NC State Bureau of Investigation and the NC Highway Patrol.

Indications are that this was not an accidentally set fire but the investigation is on going.

We want to thank all of the firefighters from throughout Orange County that responded and assisted with this fire. We are especially proud of the hard work and dedication of our on firefighters as they've worked in horrid conditions for multiple days to try and extinguish the fires. It's their hard work and expertise what will allow businesses and their employees an opportunity to remove valuables from the offices and warehouse after the fire.

 
Units: 231, 234, 261, 271, 202, 203, 206, 207
 
Mutual Aid: Cedar Grove Fire, Caldwell Fire, Eno Fire, Efland Fire, New Hope Fire, Orange Grove Fire, Chapel Hill Fire, Carrboro Fire, White Cross Fire