GREENFIELD — A fire roared through the iconic Riley Park shelter house just after 9 a.m. Wednesday, sending clouds of black smoke billowing over the Greenfield park and turning the shelter house into an empty shell.
Greenfield Fire Department’s interim fire chief Jason Horning said it took three crews about 40 minutes to extinguish the blaze — which was driven by high winds — but the historic 85-year-old structure appeared to be a total loss.
“All the wood framing is going to be a total loss, but there’s a possibility that after an engineering review they may be able to save the stone portions and rebuild,” he said, after spending 2 ½ hours on the scene Wednesday morning.
Horning said no one was hurt nor was anyone in the building when the fire broke out, and that Greenfield Fire Marshal Steve Kropacek was working to determine the cause of the blaze.
“I think the fire started in the attic, but I don’t know yet what caused it,” Kropacek said. “That could take a while.”
The first 911 call came in at 9:15 a.m.
Greenfield parks director Ellen Kuker and operations manager Josh Gentry were meeting in Kuker’s office, which overlooks both the shelter house and the park, when Gentry spotted the black cloud of smoke and ran to the window.
“That’s when I smelled it,” said Kuker, who looked outside to see smoke billowing from the shelter house.
Gentry ran to the building and grabbed the handle to the front door, but it was too hot to touch. That’s when he saw the flames inside.
Horning said high winds were eventually pushing the flames outside the building, forcing firefighters from the Greenfield, Sugar Creek and Buck Creek fire departments to battle the blaze from outside.
Water blasted into the building and dripped down the roof lines and windowsills, where nothing remained but the curled remains of melted plastic framing and jagged bits of glass, with most of the shattered windows littering the grass below.
The shelter house has been an iconic part of Riley Park since it was built in 1937, starting out as an open-air pavilion which was later enclosed. A number of renovations have taken place over the years, most recently the addition of wood flooring in 2018.
“We tried to create a cabin feel, since the shelter house had stone walls and large fireplaces. We wanted it to have a very natural look to it,” said Kuker, who said the cozy shelter house is rented out for parties and private events “just about every weekend of the year.”
Even as the firefighters continued putting out hotspots Wednesday morning, the parks staff was scrambling to find a way to accommodate those who had reserved the venue in the coming weeks.
Capt. Michael Schwamberger of the Greenfield Police Department said the building’s significance was not lost on the first responders at the scene.
“With something like this being built in the 1930s, we know it has a lot of historical value, so it makes everyone involved a little sentimental when seeing the damage,” said the captain, who was among the first to respond.
Horning, who just took over as interim fire chief Dec. 1, draped his arm over Kuker’s shoulders as the two watched firefighters continue to spray water into hot spots in the building, which at that point was mostly an empty shell.
“It was just so beautiful,” said Kuker as the smoke turned from black to gray and the sun rose over the park.
