Friday, June 19, 2009

Georgia Theater on Fire

If you have pictures of yourself, your friends, or your family at the Georgia Theater, let me know. We are going to work on a tribute post. Send your picture and a short caption about the event. (I.E. "This is me and my mom at the B-52 Concert").

Email them to:

jd2008uga@gmail.com





















A sad day for all of Athens. Thank a fire fighter and police officer who did a great job today!

You can read the 11 Alive Report, where I am quoted, here.


This from ABH/Online Athens

Fire heavily damages Georgia Theatre

Fire this morning heavily damaged the historic Georgia Theatre in downtown Athens, shrouding the central business district in smoke and knocking out electric and cell phone service to the area.

Firefighters were called at about 7 a.m. to the theatre, located at the corner of North Lumpkin and West Clayton streets.

Within an hour, the roof on the historic building had partially collapsed.
No one was in the building when the fire broke out, said I.B George, chief of the Athens-Clarke Fire Department.

"It appeared to have started on the second floor and broke through the roof shortly thereafter," George said this morning. "We're in defensive mode now. It's hard to say if they'll be able to rebuild. There is at least going to be extensive damage."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, i guess the commission can start redesigning that parking deck now with more "multi-use" store fronts.

Unknown said...

anyone have any idea how it caught on fire?

Anonymous said...

someone is trying to collect insurance money in these tough economic times if you ask me .....

Anonymous said...

I disagree, and I think that is somewhat crude to say.

Joshua Trey Barnett said...

Let's just wait for the official word before we begin speculating. The Georgia Theater is an integral part of Athens' cultural AND economic scene. Let's all hope that this is not the end of this Athens landmark.

Katie Shutters said...

what a sad sad day for GA theater... Hopefully it will be rebuilt and restored.

Anonymous said...

Your an asshole for even thinking that. The owner is a good man and loves the GA Theater more than anything in the world. Get a life jackass.

Mark Churchill said...

I've been away from Athens more than ten years now, but the eight years my wife and I were there were really enjoyable, in large part due to venues like the Georgia Theatre. The first concert I attended in Athens was a local-band showcase at the Theatre, and it was always one of my favorites (way more comfortable than the 40 Watt, thanks to the old movie-theater seating). A sad day for Athens and Athenians...

Anonymous said...

I saw the fire. My mom and I pulled up into the city hall at around 8 am and we saw the theatre ENGULFED in flames. The ACC firefighters did a GREAT job keeping it under control. We need to thank god for the unknown heroes we have in our community!