2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, June 1, 2004
NEWS
Qffl damagea, co-op
leveled z'z sep arate fire
fI
ARCADE
Continued from Page 1
"It appears that we had a short of
S some kind of electrical problem in a
computer area," Nimke said.
Stabley said there is currently no dam-
age estimate, and the fire did not spread
to nearby buildings or offices. But Ann
Arbor Police Department officers
blocked off South State Street between
Williams Street and North University
Avenue as firefighters tried to contain
the blaze.
Firefighters had to blow out the win-
dows and enter the Arcade using a lad-
der from outside. Nimke said the largest
problem faced by firefighters was gain-
ing access to the building..
Suite 101 was damaged, but once the
firemen were inside, they were able to
prevent the fire from spreading to any
other areas, Nimke said.
A crowd of people gathered
around as the stores were evacuat-
ed."We were in Bivouac and they
told us to come out because there
was a fire above them. We came out
and there was smoke," said Gabe
Huddleston, who is visiting Ann
Arbor from Indianapolis.
Curious bystanders, such as Ann
Arbor resident Jeffrey Olsztyn,
stopped to watch as firefighters
worked to contain the fire. Olsztyn
was standing near Amer's Deli-
catessen when he noticed the smoke
and heard people from Bivouac
yelling that there was an emergency.
"Smoke started rolling out of that
one corner ... and then the whole
Nickels Arcade started filling with
smoke," said Olsztyn, who continued
to watch as firefighters knocked out
three windows to the office.
Nickels Arcade is a covered shopping
center that was constructed from 1916 to
1918. It was designed by architect Her-
mann Pipp, who also designed Yost Ice
'Daly Arena. The Arcade is named after John
H. Nickels, owner of the land between
South State and Maynard streets.
CO-OP
Continued from Page 1
vacant and most of the electric was
turned off at the time of the fire,
Heemstra said.
"The irony of it was that we were
replacing the old wiring to prevent a
fire' said Sheila Ritter, general manag-
er of the Inter-Cooperative Council.
A.K. Stevens was the first co-op pur-
chasedby ICC in 1943.
Although the damage and losses
totaled more than $300,000, no one
was injured, said Brenner. Because the
house was demolished, determining the
cause of the fire is not an easy task,
said AAPD Detective Kevin Warner.
"The problem is that it was initially a
three-story structure, and it collapsed
inward so that increases the difficulty
of establishing the point of origin,"
Warner said, and added that if the
house was still standing, investigators
could locate the starting point more
easily by looking for areas in the house
that suffered the most damage.
Because there is nothing left, howev-
er, all the investigators can do is turn it
over to the contractors,Warnersaid.
Although no one was currently liv-
ing in the house, Ritter said there were
people scheduled to live there in the
fall. ICC will be talking with these
individuals since they can no longer
honor their housing contracts, but will
provide 18 other co-ops where the res-
idents can choose to live.
Former residents of the A.K.
Stevens co-op were shocked when
they learned of the fire. University
alumna Katie Powell looked in disbe-
lief at the "smoking stack" that used to
be her room.
"This is really insane. I lived here on
and off for three years," said Powell.
Benjamin Ayer, a freshman at
Washtenaw Community College,
expressed similar feelings as he stared
at the charred rainbow-colored steps.
"I hung out on that porch every
night," he said. Ayer, who also lived in
an ICC co-op, said several of his
friends lived in A.K. Stevens.
"I lived down the street at Black Elk.
One of my old housemates moved in
(to A.K. Stevens) and fixed it all up.
She puta lot of work into it," he added.
Ritter said she hopes the ICC will
rebuild the house because it has been a
part of the community for 60 years.
"A lot of people loved it ... we
don't want to see that legacy go
away," she said.
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_.:: .. .::. f
K '+9/
JONATHAN NEFF/Daily
Members of the Ann Arbor Fire Department works to clear rubble after an early-
morning fire destroyed the A.K. Stevens co-op located at 816 S. Forest Ave.
DANNY MOLOSHOK/
Firefighters work together through a window of suite 101, located in Nickels
Arcade on South State Street and North University Avenue during a fire Sunday.
I
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