COLUMBUS, Ohio — An early Monday morning fire gutted a building along East Whittier and Carpenter streets.
Crews with the Columbus Division of Fire responded around 2:30 a.m. to find the building located at 786 East Whittier St. completely engulfed with smoke stretching off the roof.
Jequetas, a convenience store, is one of the businesses inside the building that caught fire. 10TV spoke with the owner who said they closed at 9 p.m. Sunday night.
The owner, who did not want to be identified, said the building has been there for almost 100 years.
The battalion chief at the scene told 10TV that the building has been deemed a "total loss." Officials are investigating the cause of the fire.
Bryan Fitchpatrick said his father owned the building years ago, but sold the store. The other two spaces in the building were used as storage. The building itself has been in the community for 100 years.
"My father died five years ago,” he said. “All the memories of my father, now my father's gone, and all the memories are too.”
He lost things from motorcycles to little knickknacks, but his biggest lost was the memories they shared in the space.
"My dad used this as a garage back in the ‘80s. I had a game from in the front of this building...it's just a lot of...a lot of memories that's all gone,” said Fitchpatrick.
No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Columbus fire officials said crews will likely be on the scene for the remainder of the morning. No injuries were reported.