North Carolina Fire Takes 2 City Blocks, Former Tobacco Warehouse

Fire has destroyed the warehouse of the former Imperial Tobacco Co., which covered two city blocks in downtown Greenville, N.C.

The Daily Reflector of Greenville reported that the fire’s cause was unknown, although officials called it suspicious.

Greenville attorney Tom Taft had bought the warehouse, which he hoped to develop. He said it appeared that nothing can be salvaged. The building caught fire on the night of April 17.

Most of the three-story building was built in the early 1900s. A local historian says the building belonged to Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland Ltd., which was once the largest buyer of tobacco on the Greenville market for the export trade.

The company left Greenville in 1978. Officials said the building had been attracting vagrants.
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Information from: The Daily Reflector, http://www.reflector.com