Old Tannery Warehouse Destroyed in Massive Fire

Sign up for the Dacula Patch newsletter!

-----

Gwinnett firefighters battled a massive warehouse fire Tuesday night that destroyed a well-known Buford landmark.

Crews were called to the scene just before 7 p.m. at the old Buford Tannery building on East Moreno Street in downtown Buford, and found the vacant building 50-percent involved with flames.

“Flames were pouring from the front windows and already through the roof when the first fire trucks arrived,” Capt. Tommy Rutledge said in a news release.

No one was in the building at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported.

Rutledge said the fire was allowed to burn itself out as a precautionary move due to the potential of plumbing chemicals and former use of the building as a tannery decades ago.

Rutledge said part of the building was used by a plumbing company that is no longer in business. The business was in the process of moving out, Rutledge said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The building once housed the Bona Allen Company, which thrived for years as a leather-goods maker, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported.

(Photo: Gwinnett Fire PIO)