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Fire at the Masquerade extinguished

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

A fire that ignited outside Atlanta’s Masquerade Music Park Saturday night has been extinguished, with no reported injuries. The fire did destroy a storage space separate from the music venue.

Around 10 p.m., three Atlanta Fire Department engines responded to the venue’s open-air music park.

Witnesses said they walked outside to find plumes of smoke billowing from the the rear of the venue. Another witness standing in a nearby parking lot said he saw smoke as well. He said he walked to the rear of the venue and found flames had already engulfed trees and were spreading to nearby booths.

Firefighters managed to contain the blaze to a fenced-in area that stored portable toilets. All of those toilets — an estimated 20 — appeared to be destroyed.

The main venue, which tonight was hosting a punk rock showcase, was not impacted.

Firefighters did not immediately know what caused the fire. The fire, witnesses said, appeared to have started in the portable toilet storage area.

CL attempted to take a photo of the damage but was told by firefighters we were not appropriately dressed to enter the scene. You know, because of the contents of the burnt portable toilets and the fact that we were in sandals. Tessa from Drive a Faster Car has Twitter pics of the blaze.

Grant Park fire video

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Late Saturday night, a Grant Park couple’s home burned for 25 minutes before firefighting crews arrived. Officials are probing why it took the City of Atlanta 911 call center so long to relay the message to fire crews. A computer malfunction has hindered the department’s ability to determine the exact time the 911 call was received.

Below is a video of the fire posted on YouTube by the couple’s neighbor.