Rebuilding continues nearly one year after Pacific Pride Fire

MEDFORD, Ore. —It’s been nearly a year since the Pacific Pride Fire near downtown Medford.

It happened on April 12th at the Central Avenue Pacific Pride gas station. The late-night fire damaged four buildings and six businesses while releasing more than 20,000 gallons of petroleum products.

“Obviously it was a very devastating thing that happened and we’re giving everyone time as far as the insurance company and DEQ to make sure everybody gets their ducks in a row before we move forward, said Sam Barnun, Building Safety Director for the city of Medford.

Barnum says Pacific Pride is almost 100% done with cleaning up its property and is just putting the final layer of gravel down. But other nearby businesses aren’t nearly as well off. Southern Oregon Printing says it still doesn’t have a place to call home 10 months after the fire.  Don Dedrick’s business was part of the strip mall, at 924 South Central with other tenants  La Mota Dispensary and Pro Dogz Dog Training. It was leasing the space.

“We’re completely in the dark, we’re just waiting to see how it all plays out,” said Dedrick.

Now Dedrick says it’s a waiting game to see if the building owners decide to rebuild.

“We’re kinda in a wait-and-see to see what La Mota is gonna do with our lease situation and stuff like that,” said Dedrick.

Barnum says it’s the owner’s responsibility to clean up their property. But the city says it’s willing to help them streamline the process. The city says it’s been working with the owner of this property to help with the removal of the burned building ever since the fire, but no action has been taken by the owner to demolish the building.

“It is an eye-sore, first thing you see in Medford, and you hate for that to be the first thing you see if you come into town,” said Barnum.

That’s why this week the city issued a citation of $250 on the property. The owner now has 30 days to respond to the citation and or demolish the building.

“The city is going to keep moving forward, the citation hopefully kick starts the demo of that place and hopefully in a short time frame it’s done,” said Barnum.

We reached out to the owner of the building but have not heard back.

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Jenna King is the 6pm and 11pm anchor for NBC5 News. Jenna is a Burbank, CA native. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Sports Business. During her time at Oregon she was part of the student-run television station, Duck TV. She also grew her passion for sports through her internship with the PAC 12 Network. When Jenna is not in the newsroom you can find her rooting for her hometown Dodgers, exploring the outdoors or binging on the latest Netflix release.
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