Downtown Visions reopens after nearby fire

Smoke from last week’s fire at a light store in downtown Wilmington caused smoke damage at the headquarters building for Downtown Visions.

Last Thursday’s fire at Gross Lighting Center at 4th and Orange Sts. was finally brought under control after about three hours.  During that time, neighboring businesses suffered water and smoke damage.

Visions, which provides cleaning and safety services for businesses in downtown Wilmington, is headquartered next to the fire scene on Orange St. between 4th and 5th.  In a note posted on Visions’ website, Executive Director Marty Hageman says, “We were very lucky as the fire did cause smoke damage, and we temporarily lost all of our systems including electric, telephone and computers.”

Downtown Visions also monitors a series of surveillance cameras in cooperation with Wilmington Police.  “We are fully back in business at this time except for telephone service, which should be resuming in short order,” Hageman said.

The light store where the fire started was condemned by the Wilmington Department of Licenses and Inspections in June 2012 after a host of code violations were discovered. Firefighters’ efforts were hindered by what fire officials call “an excessive amount of clutter in the building.”  

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.