Cause of fire at vacant Goodyear building on River Street under investigation
The cause of a fire at the former Goodyear mixing plant on River Street in Akron remains under investigation, according to the Akron Fire Department.
Firefighters responded about 5:20 p.m. Thursday with ladder trucks and other apparatus and found smoke billowing from the vacant building's third floor. They used a drone and lifted personnel on ladders to the third floor to combat the blaze but did not immediately enter the building because it was deemed hazardous, one of the crew members on site said.
The fire was under control at 6:30 p.m., the fire department said.
The department said no one was found inside the building and there were no injuries in Thursday's fire, which remains under investigation. The fire's origin also remains under investigation.
The former rubber mixing plant is within a couple hundred feet of the complex that is now the East End office, retail, residential and recreational development on East Market Street.
The building is located at 1190 River St.
River Street runs parallel to East Market Street just north of Interstate 76 in Akron's Middlebury neighborhood.
Firefighters responded to a previous fire at the same building, believed to have been caused by trespassers, just over one year ago.
In that case, contractors found three fires on the sixth floor. The fire department said at the time it was believed they were started by people just trying to stay warm. No one was there when firefighters arrived.
Goodyear mixing plant: Demolition planned for former Goodyear building near East End development in Akron
Paul Harris, general manager of the East End development, said at the time that trespassers were a regular problem at the building, which has 24-hour security and cameras.
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. began operations at the East Market Street site around 1909. The complex served as a manufacturing facility until 1962, when it was transformed into the company’s world headquarters.
Goodyear's headquarters, with 2,000 employees, moved to its new 639,000-square-foot Innovation Way facility in 2013, following the purchase of the East Market Street complex by California developer Stuart Lichter and his company, Industrial Realty Group.
Harris said the mixing plant was built around 1915 and ceased operations in 2016 and has been vacant since February 2018 after a year and a half of decommissioning.
Plans are in place to demolish the building and leave the space as a green buffer, though the land could be repurposed at a future date, Harris said last year.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Fire at vacant Goodyear building on River Street under investigation
