NEW ORLEANS — A workshop and storage area housed in a historic French Quarter building is in ruins after a fire Thursday night. The New Orleans Fire Department says there is no evidence it was set intentionally, though the cause still has not been determined.
Around 6:30 p.m., the NOFD responded to calls of a fire in the 500 block of Dauphine Street. By the time they got there, the structure was on the verge of collapse.
Neighbor Shelly Hudson was alerted to the commotion when her dogs began barking. Soon, her entire street was packed with fire trucks. She stepped onto her second floor balcony and could see “flames flying up and embers going crazy.”
The NOFD said the fire spread to the shotgun home next door. It caused some damage to the attic and exterior wall but otherwise it was fine.
Hudson and other neighbors hoped their own homes would be alright as they watched firefighters battle the flames. “It was scary,” she said, “I was really worried it was gonna spread.”
It took about an hour to bring the fire under control. Both Hudson and another witness told WWL Louisiana the firefighters appeared to be doing well in a difficult situation. “They made sure that everybody was safe around them,” said Alan Robinson, who is visiting from Texas.
Friday, the damage to the building where the fire began was clear. The facade is still standing, but the wood-frame walls and roof collapsed completely. The Olivier House Hotel uses the building as a workshop and storage area, and a representative from the hotel said it is rarely occupied at night. No one was inside the building or the neighboring home when firefighters got to the scene.
The building has a long history. According to the Historic New Orleans Collection, it was built around 1835 as a shotgun cottage. In 1920, woodworker Hillel Pukof bought it and sold cedar chests and wardrobes out the door for decades. Record show his family still owns it.
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