Thick, black smoke was visible outside the State Street building, which sustained about $10,000 in damage, according to a Springfield Fire Department estimate.
This 2007 Republican file photo shows Epiphany Tower, a prominent State Street building that has long been vacant. The building is located on State Street, between Dwight and Willow streets, directly across from the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. SPRINGFIELD -- A small fire at Epiphany Tower -- an historic, eight-story building that is slated to become a chain hotel -- triggered a big response from city firefighters Friday evening.
"It attracted a lot of attention," Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger said of the 7:57 p.m. blaze, which looked worse than it was, sending thick, black smoke into the air shortly before sundown.
Leger said the fire was sparked by workers who were cutting up and removing an old oil tank from the State Street building, which is located between Willow and Dwight streets. Leger was unsure if workers used a blow torch to dismantle the roughly 2,000-gallon tank, but a section of pipe that still had oil in it apparently caught fire, he said.
The smoke was visible from the street and caused about $10,000 in damage, according to Leger.
Located across from the MassMutual Center, Epiphany Tower is poised to become a Holiday Inn Express Hotel, according to the latest plans for the downtown building.
As of May, that plan was on track, said a spokesman for Jamsan Hotel Management, the Lexington-based development firm that hopes to transform the building into a 98-room hotel.
The $5 million project calls for creating additional parking and demolishing an adjacent building, among other things, and is expected to create 50 permanent hotel jobs and 100 temporary construction jobs.
Plans for the site were approved by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority in April 2010.
Epiphany Tower -- formerly known as Civic Tower -- has had many uses over the decades, but in recent years has remained vacant.
"The place has had a lot of fires (over the years)," Leger said.
According to The Republican's archives, a Springfield man was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison in August 2002 after admitting to setting a series of fires in the empty building that caused an estimated $100,000 in damages.