Fire rips through two of Buffalo's oldest buildings in the Cobblestone District

Crews responded to a two-alarm fire in the Cobblestone District Tuesday night. The buildings are at the center of a eminent domain battle between the owner and city.

Author: Nate Benson (WGRZ), Tyler Pacos Published: 8:26 PM EDT June 18, 2024 Updated: 6:27 AM EDT June 19, 2024

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Fire Crews were called to 110 and 118 South Park Ave Tuesday night just in the heart of the Cobblestone District.

When 2 On Your Side arrived on scene, flames were shooting from the rooftop and several windows of the buildings.

The two buildings are some of the oldest in the City of Buffalo, dating back to the 1852 and 1869 respectively.

Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said the fire started on the first floor of the building.

"We have anywhere from 50 to 60 firefighters on location right now and over 20 pieces of apparatus," Commissioner Renaldo said.

One of the main concerns for Buffalo Fire is the structural integrity of the building. 2 On Your Side inspected public code enforcement violation records for the property, owned by Darryl Carr. The most recent data says that the building was cited 9 times in 2020, particularly for structural issues and a partially collapsed exterior wall.

"We have to maintain our standoff distance because a couple of walls are compromised," Renaldo said. "We have bricks falling, things of that nature."

The firefighters that responded to the Cobblestone District Tuesday night are the same crews that battled the blaze at The Pink on Allen St. Monday morning.

Commissioner Renaldo said a rest plan is in place for those firefighters that worked both major fires.

In terms of a cause, the Commissioner said it is way too early to know what sparked the Cobblestone District fire.

"We can't gain access to the building yet," Renaldo said. "Fire started on the first floor, spreading all four floors at this time and [we're] having a hard time getting access to all all the parts of the building we want to."

As of 1AM, Tuesday, an emergency demolition hadn't been determined because crews were still gaining control of the fire, but Commissioner Renaldo didn't seem hopeful the building could be saved.

"Some of the walls have been compromised, so it doesn't look good at this point," Renaldo said.

Heavy machinery from Grand Island was brought in overnight to assist Buffalo Fire crews with gaining access to the building. Commissioner Renaldo said the equipment has a 60-foot arm that is capable of breaching the walls of the brick building.

The Eminent Domain Issue

The City of Buffalo and building owner Darryl Carr have been embattled in a heated eminent domain dispute since the Common Council initiated proceedings in September 2022.

Darryl Carr has owned the pair of Cobblestone Buildings for over 16 years, and since his ownership the property has has numerous building code violations and appeared in housing court repeatedly.

Carr has sought demolition permits to tear down the buildings several times, and was even awarded one in early 2023 before the city's eminent domain proceeding hit the court docket.

However, once the city moved forward with the eminent domain in May 2023, nothing could be done to the building until the proceeding played out in the courtroom.

Fillmore District councilmember Mitch Nowakowski led the effort for the eminent domain and lobbied hard to save the buildings.

Carr says he plans to build a 55-story tower consisting of apartments, condo's and retail space at the site.

Both Carr and Councilman Nowkowski were on scene after the fire ignited Tuesday night.

According to Carr, the two had a heated exchange.

"He's the cause of this, really, if you think about it," Carr said. "I'm saying it's his fault, because it is, because if he supported me, these buildings would have been down years ago, and this never would have happened."

Councilman Nowakowski said it's too early to know the direct cause of the fire, but did allude to Carr's upkeep of the properties as a major problem.

"This is a shame that we allow landlords to do this in the City of Buffalo, that we allow the delay of courts for over a decade to allow this to happen," Nowkowski said.

During all of the legal proceedings over the years, Carr has maintained that the building was beyond preservation.

"There was no saving anything in there," Carr said. "My demo contractors would tell me the same thing."

Councilmember Nowakowski said that a ruling in the eminent domain proceeding was expected this week or next.

But if the building requires an emergency demolition, the eminent domain proceeding could be rendered pointless. It is possible the judge in the matter rules the city should still take over the property, even without a building to save.

Buffalo Fire and the City of Buffalo said there would be more updates Wednesday morning.