Oct. 20, 2005 – A substantial blaze at the corner of lower Kongens Gade, at the bottom of Government Hill, and Hospital Gade was quickly contained on Thursday morning.
However, it was disrupting traffic flow into Charlotte Amalie. The fire was in a building on the northeast corner of that intersection – across the street from where the Apollo Theater was once located.
Four units from Hospital Company, Tutu and Dorothea Fire stations responded to the blaze, which was reported at 5:20 a.m.
Donald Charles, Fire Services spokesman, said "The firefighters did a wonderful job in containing the blaze." He also said "You know those buildings are only three or four feet apart."
Charles said the fire was under control as of 7:30 a.m. but the mop-up operation was expected to take another hour.
Motorists are asked to avoid the area in the meantime.
Hospital Gade and Kongens Gade were closed, as was Education Street.
The odor from the fire woke up a resident in Frenchtown and embers from the fire flew beyond Roosevelt Park.
Charles said the building appeared to be abandoned. "There were no signs of occupancy," he said.
Charles said the cause could not be determined until the clean-up is completed.
This is the second fire in the downtown area in a month. On Sept. 30, a fire gutted an historic building — also abandoned — on Bunker Hill.
Fire Prevention Week was last week.
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