A Look Inside The Fire Damaged Liberty Building

A massive fire shuts down a prominent five story office building in downtown Franklin yesterday.

The damage to the Liberty Building is extensive, possibly upwards of a million dollars.

The building is home to law and doctors offices, social services, Verizon Wireless and Subway.

At noon yesterday, the fire alarms went off. When the fire department arrived on scene, there were no flames. A firefighter was standing in an office that has been vacant for years, and a wall blew out right behind him. That's how the origin of the fire was determined, but the cause is still under investigation

Today, the contractor, John Deemer, took us to the fifth floor where the fire started. We walked over inches of melted debris are all that's left other than the concrete walls and steel beams.

Each floor of the building is six-thousand square feet, and the fifth floor is a total loss.

Deep Harbour Properties in New York, owns the Liberty Building. We spoke with Executive Partner David Dworkin, and he says he's thankful no one was hurt and at least some of the building was saved. He wants tenants and their customers to know that the focus is now on rebuilding and getting them back in business.

Deep Harbour Properties owns another office building in Franklin. Dworkin will place the current tenants there.

Subway and Verizon Wireless are on the first floor and only suffered minor smoke damage. They are back in business.

The building next door had several apartments with smoke damage. The Red Cross provided them with food and a place to stay, but they are able to come back home today.