Crews respond to fire Friday morning at historic structure

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Bowling Green Fire Department is at the scene Friday morning after a large fire at a historic building.

Fire officials say a call came in around 1:45 a.m. to respond to 1025 State St. for a structure fire.

WNKY News 40 crews were on the scene.

It has been confirmed a part of the building is the location of Sen. Rand Paul’s Bowling Green state office. Paul shared the following statement Friday morning regarding the fire:

“We are thankful for the Bowling Green first responders who arrived quickly to the scene to put out the fire and are continuing to work with authorities to assess damages and to determine a cause. We have a very well established emergency management plan and have the ability to continue operations that will not impact our work helping Kentuckians.”

According to city officials, the building damaged Friday has history dating back to at least 1900, once offering a home to Royal Music Co. and most recently to Kerrick Bachert, PSC and a printing company.

As of about 6 a.m., Bowling Green fire officials say fire crews are still at this location. They are asking the public to avoid Chestnut Street and State Street between East 10th Avenue to East 11th Avenue. These roads are blocked at this time, and detours are set up.

City officials say the entire roof of the building did not survive and has collapsed. No injuries have been reported.

This is a developing story. We will provide an update as further details are released.