Suspicious Fire Damages Janesville Industrial Building

Janesville firefighters spent six hours battling a blaze at a vacant industrial site just east of the city’s downtown on Tuesday.

Firefighters were sent to the building in the 1100 block of Harding Street on the city’s northeast side around 7:15 p.m.

When firefighters arrived at Lycon Inc., they said they found the building was about 25 percent engulfed in flames. Officials found fire showing at the roof and from all windows on the north side of the building. Firefighters had to use about 120,000 gallons of water to put out the blaze, which caused approximately $10,000 damage to the structure, according to fire officials.

Officials were able to make contact with the property owner, G.R. Lyons, who said the building was vacant and slated for demolition. The owner said gas and electricity had been shut off to the building.

Fire officials said Lyons was able to provide a track-hoe to help safely pull down unstable parts of the building and move debris to completely extinguish the fire.

They listed the cause of the fire as undetermined, but it is considered suspicious. Officials said they were unable to determine a source for the fire since the damage was so bad.

No one was injured in the blaze.