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Extensive damage testifies to the difficulty firefighters met in battling a blaze Thursday morning at the historic Cleveland Apartments at West First Street and Jackson Avenue in Joplin. No injuries were reported, and no cause had been identified as of Thursday afternoon.
This file photo shows the extensive damage exacted May 12 by fire at the historice Cleveland Apartments in Joplin. The Joplin Fire Department is conducting a review of the execution of the fire suppression effort by it and multiple departments from the area. GLOBE FILE | ANDY OSTMEYER
Extensive damage testifies to the difficulty firefighters met in battling a blaze Thursday morning at the historic Cleveland Apartments at West First Street and Jackson Avenue in Joplin. No injuries were reported, and no cause had been identified as of Thursday afternoon.
This file photo shows the extensive damage exacted May 12 by fire at the historice Cleveland Apartments in Joplin. The Joplin Fire Department is conducting a review of the execution of the fire suppression effort by it and multiple departments from the area. GLOBE FILE | ANDY OSTMEYER
An overnight fire caused extensive damage to the Cleveland Apartments in Joplin.
The three stone buildings, 801-807 W. First St., at the corner of Jackson Avenue, were recently approved by the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation for listing consideration on the National Register of Historic Places. A pair of brothers, Shawn and Stephen Grindle, of Joplin, previously had announced plans to renovate them.
All three buildings were involved in the blaze when firefighters arrived at 1:17 a.m. Thursday, assistant fire chief Andy Nimmo said.
Nimmo said one building had heavy fire damage, and the other two had fire damage to the upper floor along with water damage from the effort to extinguish the blaze. It took 2 1/2 hours for the fire department, assisted by eight area fire departments, to get the blaze under control. A tanker shuttle had to be set up to get enough water to fight the fire, Nimmo said.
Nimmo said all the buildings were damaged because they are connected by an attic. The fire moved through the attic to reach them all.
No one was found in the buildings and no one was injured, he said.
Firefighters left the scene at 8:26 a.m. The fire marshal is investigating the cause and origin of the fire, Nimmo said.
The Cleveland Apartments were luxury apartments that had a reputation for housing wealthy widows left behind by entrepreneurial husbands.
William Phelps Cleveland had the Cleveland Apartments b uilt in 1914 after he came to Joplin in 1890. He was from Pennsylvania, where he had worked in the mining industry.
Cleveland was in charge of Empire Zinc’s laboratory for several years, eventually moving up to the job as superintendent. He later left to start his business in assaying ore, the W.P. Cleveland Analytical Laboratory.
He also had his own mining pursuits and, as a result of his knowledge of the ore processing industry, invented the Cleveland-Knowles magnetic separator to sort ores heavy in iron content from other types. In 1902, that invention led him to form the Joplin Separating Co. That company bought low-grade ores and concentrated them for commercial uses. It was reported to be the only such operation in the Joplin mining district.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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