NEWS

Avondale fire: 'No evidence there was a gunfight'

Emilie Eaton, and Rebecca Butts
Cincinnati
Fifty-five firefighters responded to a Sunday morning fire in the 500 block of Carplin Place in Avondale Sunday morning.

There is no evidence of a shooting endangering firefighters in Avondale early Sunday morning, the City of Cincinnati said Sunday afternoon, contradicting the Fire Department's statement earlier in the day.

The update came seven hours after the Cincinnati Fire Department issued a news release saying gunfire had broken out shortly after firefighters' arrival, with a bullet grazing one firefighter's helmet and "narrowly missing several others." In all, 55 firefighters responded to a structure fire around midnight in a vacant two-story building in the 500 block of Carplin Place.

The firefighter's helmet could have been struck by shrapnel or something else projected out of the fire, city spokesman Rocky Merz said Sunday afternoon.

"It appears something was coming out of the fire," Merz said. "There is no evidence there was a gunfight or there was a shooting."

The firefighters were battling a big fire and could have easily mistaken something else projected from the fire as bullets, he said. A video posted to YouTube shows flames erupting from the roof of the building.

Merz said the police department's forensic teams will examine the evidence, including the firefighter's helmet and the scene, to determine what really happened. The police department will have a clearer idea what occurred in one or two days, Merz said.

That investigation wasn't evident at the fire scene Sunday. Around 10 a.m., the scene showed no activity. There was no crime scene tape or indication that anything had occurred besides the fire earlier in the day.

Merz said the forensic team would still be able to determine what happened, even if there is very little evidence, because of its training.

"This is what they do," Merz said. "They are able to determine what most likely happened."

The firefighter, whose name has not been released, was not injured. The fire caused about $80,000 in damage to the building.

The cause is under investigation, the fire department said.

Sunday morning, before Merz's statement, District 3 Chief Rob McWilliams told The Enquirer that shootings are always in the back of firefighters' minds as they do their job.

"There are so many shootings going on," McWilliams said. "That thought is there. That possibility is always there. The areas that we work -- there's a lot of that going on."

McWilliams said firefighters usually do feel safe doing their job. Whenever there is an incident, police officers go into the building first.

Reached after Merz provided the update, McWilliams said he hadn't received any updates and had nothing to add.

No one lived in the building at the time of the fire, but squatters are known to inhabit it, according to the fire department.

Fifty-five firefighters were sent to a structure fire at this vacant two-story building in the 500 block of Carplin Place around 12 a.m.