[1]Ayla Lukascik gets a final picture with her phone.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – As dusk approached, a fire truck’s engine idled and folks milled around the downtown intersection with the massive shell of the historic Matz building providing a backdrop.
Some were waiting for the word so they might bid on the demolition. Others came to see it one last time.
“My dad used to own the record store that was here, Rainbow Records,” Ayla Lukascik said after capturing some images with her phone.
“He closed it down in, ’88 or something,” she said. “I don’t really remember.”
Lukascik graduated from high school here, and moved to Seattle. But she returned today to visit her father, and the gray two-story structure on the corner of Tower Avenue and Main Street.
Crews are expected tomorrow to begin the process of tearing it down, according to city spokesperson Officer John Panco.
Yesterday’s fire [2] nearly gutted the building, collapsing parts of its roof and floors.
The decision of whether to rebuild or demolish was between the owner and the insurance company, Centralia Building Official LG Nelson said. But what Nelson knew already is it might fall down with the slightest tremor.
“There’s no lateral connections to hold the walls up,” he said. “It’s so unsafe, we’re afraid of trains going by, or a 15 mph wind.”
A fence installed along two of its sides keeps parts of two main streets blocked, as a precaution.
Nelson and others met near the site shortly after 5 p.m. today and he shared that what needs to happen quickly, is at least one lane of Tower Avenue there has to be reopened, he said.
Owner Linda Hamilton [3] was among those on the corner.
Earlier today, contractors removed her signature “Cafe” sign and the patio furniture that graced the sidewalk outside Centralia Perk’s entrance.
It will be stored for now, she said.
The claw foot bathtubs that each of the dozen apartments were furnished with will stay inside, she said. Along with all of their belongings.
Everything, she said.
“We left keys, money, we left with nothing,” Hamilton said.
Fire investigators were never able to go inside to do a complete investigation because the building was deemed unstable.
After the meeting that included city officials, Panco said the official cause of the blaze is “undetermined.”
They did conclude it originated on the main level, he said.
Riverside Fire Authority Assistant Chief Rick Mack this morning said a plausible possibility was a candle burning [4] on a desk inside Curious Betty’s clothing boutique.
The masonry building, erected in 1889, originally housed National Bank and Dr. Matz, a dentist.
It is the oldest building in downtown Centralia, if one doesn’t count a wood structure that still stands at North Tower Avenue and First Street, and possibly a wood frame apartment building on South Tower Avenue near the viaduct, according to Jeff Miller, president of the Centralia Downtown Association.
The Matz building’s final tenants include the residents of 12 apartments, Centralia Perk, an antique store, a tattoo shop, a barber shop, a hair salon and Curious Betty’s.