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Jamestown investigators working to determine cause of furniture factory fire

Jamestown's Deputy Chief Matthew Coon says the blaze started some time around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — The Jamestown Fire and Police departments are looking into what caused the former Crawfords Furniture Factory to go up in flames on Wednesday.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist says the old building on Allen Street started on fire some time around 11:30 a.m. 

Jamestown Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Coon says the building went up in flames quickly and forced crews from multiple fire departments in Chautauqua County to help. He added it's one of the top 10, biggest fires that he's ever seen in his career.

2 On Your Side has also learned the building was being used for storage, so there was a lot to burn inside.

"As things have unfolded, the building did collapse as a result of the fire. As the incident progressed along now, we're starting to scale back our operation a bit and trying to get in and mop up some hot spots and certainly have a plan to mitigate this as we work through the night and into tomorrow," Coon said. 

Now police are pulling surveillance video from nearby businesses to find out what happened.

Fire investigators arrived on scene by 6 p.m.

Coon says some existing structural issues which the city had been fighting over, meant everything except a service elevator collapsed.

Mayor Sundquist added the building and the city do have a history with the former furniture factory, since they've been in and out of court with the owner about concerns over the building's integrity.

The fire spread fast but it is not believed that anyone was inside when the blaze started. No one was hurt either.

Coon says fire crews will be working through the night and into Thursday to make things are under control. 

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