Jurisdictions/2009 Est Taxes CITY OF TYLER $21.79 SMITH COUNTY $30.86 TYLER ISD $146.85 TYLER JR. COLLEGE $14.63
For Actual Tax Levy contact Gary Barber Tax Assessor/Collector at (903) 590-2920. Tax amounts shown are Estimates prepared by Smith County Appraisal District
Trial by Fire Tyler Attorneys Reconstruct Practices After Four-Alarm Blaze
By Mary Alice Robbins
Texas Lawyer
February 16, 2009
Tyler solo Dan Hurst lost everything in his law office when a Feb. 2 fire ravaged a row of historic buildings located behind the Smith County Courthouse.
"When it was over, what I had left was five paper clips . . . and that was because they were in my pocket," Hurst says.
Since seeing the damage caused by the fire, Hurst says he has not wanted to visit the building where he leased office space for the past 24 years. "I go to the courthouse, but I don't look back at my office," he says.
Hurst, who practices mostly criminal law, is one of four lawyers whose offices were damaged in the fire. Tyler Fire Department Capt. Jeff Akin says the four-alarm blaze started in the basement of the building at 113 N. Spring Ave., which iswhere Hurst's office was located.
Akin says the fire department received a call about the fire at 7:24 p.m. on Feb. 2. "We had it out by about 11 o'clock," Akin says, noting that about 50 firefighters from Tyler's fire stations and six volunteer fire departments from around Smith County battled the blaze for about three-and-a-half hours.
Investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Tyler Fire Department have listed the cause of the fire as "undetermined," Akin says.
Nathan Hoffman, a partner in Holcomb, Morrison & Hoffman, says the fire apparently started around 4 p.m. Feb. 2 but he did not learn about it until his partner, Kyle Morrison, called him four hours later. The buildings damaged by the fire are more than 100 years old, Hoffman says.
Hoffman says he and Morrison were able to salvage most of their files and computers. "I think we have all our current files," says Hoffman, who along with Morrison has a general practice.
But Hoffman says most of his firm's furniture is unusable. The good news, he says: "It wasn't Chippendales."
Hoffman says a firewall between the building where Holcomb, Morrison had its offices and the building in which Hurst had his office on the first floor, prevented Holcomb, Morrison from suffering more severe damage.
Hoffman says personal-injury solo Keith Miller's office at 115 N. Spring Ave. also suffered damage in the fire. Miller declines comment.
Hoffman says his own firm did not carry property and casualty insurance. "You can't insure a practice," he says. "In order in insure for loss of income, you have to get a special policy. It would be a pretty large premium."
Hurst says he also is uninsured for property damage.
"It just never dawned on me to get it," Hurst says when asked why he did not have coverage. "I think I may have had it years ago, but it lapsed."
Disaster Recovery On Feb. 9, Hurst, Hoffman and Morrison relocated their offices to a building owned by Tyler solo Kay Davenport.
Davenport says her building has five levels, including a mezzanine and loft, providing plenty of room for the three lawyers and the two secretaries employed by Holcomb, Morrison. "It's for however long they need it," Davenport says of the office space.
After Hoffman and Morrison moved to Davenport's building, they had to begin the task of drying out many of their records and documents.
"We've had original signed documents laying out drying around the building," Davenport says.
Hurst has faced bigger problems, however, because he lost all his case files and other records in the fire.
"Everything I had on my computer is lost," he says. "I backed [the data] up like you're supposed to, but I left the backup disk in my office. I was thinking computer crash, not fire."
But Hurst has had some help in rebuilding his files. He says the Smith County District Attorney's Office identified the pending criminal cases in which he represents defendants and provided him the information filed in those cases. Local judges have been agreeable about rescheduling any hearings set in his cases, Hurst says.
Hurst also says that the opposing attorneys in civil and divorce cases in which he represents clients have provided him new copies of any information he had obtained earlier through discovery.
Not everything is easily recovered, though. One of Hurst's problems has been the loss of his handwritten notes on intake sheets for clients in divorce cases. Hurst says he has had to contact those clients to get their information again. He says he also has been in contact with some clients in criminal cases not in the DA's files.
Also lost in the fire, Hurst says, are all the bank records for his law practice, including interest on lawyers trust account (IOLTA) information. Hurst says he has been in contact with his bank to try to reconstitute those records.
The lesson he has learned as a result of the fire, Hurst says, is to put all his records in the computer, back up the information on a computer disk and then make a second backup disk to take home.
Hoffman says he and the other attorneys have been the beneficiaries of an outpouring of support from the community. Attorneys have sent them all kinds of supplies, everything from paper and pens to document trays, he says.
Hurst says some attorneys also have agreed to let him use office furniture that they have stored.
John Eastland, president of the Smith County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, says the Tyler legal community has pulled together to assist the lawyers who suffered losses in the fire.
"It's just everybody helping everybody, and that's the way it should be," says Eastland, a solo practitioner.
Hurst says his first priority is to get his law office back up and running. But one of the most important things for him to do, Hurst says, is to keep a good attitude about his situation and to be able to laugh about it.
"It's just stuff," Hurst says of his loss. "Nobody was hurt; nobody was injured. That's the most important thing."
(by Tyler Morning Telegraph Staff Writers BETTY WATERS and KENNETH DEAN ........... Staff Writers Malena Ogles and Megan Middleton contributed to this report)
As several roofs collapsed, firefighters worked to control a fire in downtown Tyler — a fire that sent one firefighter to a local hospital and thick smoke billowing down South Broadway Avenue Monday night.
About 10 p.m. the flames spread to a second building, Sinclair & Wright Architects at 119 N. Spring Ave. and the aerial water attack continued.
Perched on the Smith County Courthouse annex, Tyler Fire Chief Neal Franklin directed the flow of the multiple water cannons from the roof of the directly across the street as more than 50 area firefighters worked to control the fire that is believed to have begun at 113 N. Spring Ave.
“We initially came up here to watch the men we had on the roof adjacent to where the fire is, but now we have a good bird’s eye view and are able to help best direct the water flow,” he said.
Tenants hung out the windows of loft apartments above Don Juan Mexican Restaurant on the Square watching the scene as throngs of onlookers arrived at the scene with their cameras.
Roads were blocked by police cruisers from Ferguson Street and Spring Avenue to Erwin Street and Broadway Avenue to provide access to the fire for emergency vehicles.
One Tyler firefighter was transported to the hospital for chest pains. Akins later said the firefighter was in good condition.
No one was believed to be in the building when the fire broke out, and no other injuries were reported.
“It will probably be tomorrow before we know the exact cause. We have to be able to extinguish the fire to look at it,” Tyler Fire Department Capt. Jeff Akin said. Akin said the situation could be better than it appears because in between the burning law office and other businesses were firewalls designed to prevent the spread of fire, which began about 7:20 p.m.
“I think we’ve about got it under control,” Akin said about 10:10 p.m., adding that when the smoke begins to turn white, it’s usually a positive sign. “The firewalls saved it from getting into the other buildings, but there will be heavy smoke and water damage to the adjacent buildings. We were really lucky the wind wasn’t blowing that strong. If the wind would’ve been blowing it would’ve been really bad,” he said.
Jane Ann Morrison, whose husband owns Holcomb and Morrison Law Firm at 111 N. Spring Ave., said that her family got a call from the fire department saying the business was on fire and asking them to see if they could save any of their belongings.
“They wouldn’t let us get anywhere close to it when we got here,” Mrs. Morrison said, watching the fire burn.
On her way to the fire, Linda Reynolds, an employee at the law firm, said she started to smell smoke in front of Steinmart on South Broadway Avenue and had to close the air conditioning vents on her car.
Nathan Hoffman, an attorney whose law firm is in 111B N. Spring Ave., said exterminators were on the second floor of his building earlier in the day and were still working when he left the office about 4 p.m.
“I hope there is something left. We don’t have any insurance. We were getting ready to move. I guess we will be moving quicker than we thought,” Hoffman said. Attorney Dan Hurst said it looked like his office, 113 N. Spring Ave., was going to be a total loss.
He said he lamented the loss of court records, case discovery and files that will have to be reworked.
He said it would probably take months to get those cases back together. Hurst said 117 N. Spring Ave. was an empty building and both floors at 115 N. Spring were occupied by attorney Keith Miller.
Vic Taylor, owner of La Tee Da Flowers, which is south of the burning buildings, said one of his tenants in a condo upstairs from the shop called 911 when the tenant saw smoke coming from behind the building.
The La Tee Da flower shop sustained some water damage, and tenants living above the shop may be displaced until the damage is repaired.
Heavy smoke and water may have also caused damage to Arcadia, located along the strip of buildings. Levines, a department store, did not appear to be damaged.
Lindale, Dixie, Flint-Gresham, Noonday and Bullard volunteer fire departments were also on the scene and other departments were stationed at Tyler Fire Stations along with 20 off-duty Tyler firefighters called in to answer other calls in the city.
Akins said firefighters would be on the scene most of the night to make sure there were no flare ups.
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