Abhishek Agarwal
Published: September 25, 2008

DUBUQUE — An apartment building at 1390 Bluff Street caught fire in downtown Dubuque around 12:50 pm this afternoon. The fire started in an apartment where a construction crew was scraping paint off the windows using a heat gun.

“They were scraping the paint off the wall and the heat gun caught the wood on fire and it went up in the attic,” says apartment resident Amanda Browning.

No one was injured as the construction crew called 911 and evacuated the building. Everybody was able to get out of the building in time but had to leave behind their pets in the burning building.

“I was scared I was trying to get my cats I am like let’s get the cats and go but they told us we couldn’t they told us all to get out and leave,” describes Browning.

The streets were cordoned off on all four sides making Loras Boulevard virtually inaccessible. Traffic had to be redirected around the scene. The fire department was able to get the fire under control quickly; however, the building did sustain some damage and a lot of debris had to be thrown out.

Abhishek Agarwal can be contacted at Abhishek.Agarwal@loras.edu