Latest news with #TheAnnistonStar
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Fire at Noble Street building under investigation
A Friday morning fire at an older commercial building on Noble Street sent thick smoke billowing across the city as firefighters worked to contain the flames. Anniston Fire Chief Jeff Waldrep said the department received the call at 7:57 a.m. and responded with Ladder One and four additional engines. Crews worked to prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent structures while Anniston police blocked off Noble Street to assist emergency responders. The fire heavily damaged the front portion of the building at 303 Noble Street. The fire's origin and cause are under investigation by Anniston Fire Marshal Jason Brown. Waldrep said it was unclear whether the building was occupied, but it did have electrical service running to it. No injuries were reported. Photo gallery: Friday morning fire at 303 Noble Street Photos: Anniston Fire Department responded to a call at 7:57 a.m. Friday at 303 S. Noble Street. According to Fire Chief Jeff Waldrep, there have been no reports of injuries. Cause is unknown pending an investigation. At 9 a.m., fire crews were still on the scene to extinguish the still smoldering building. Traffic is being rerouted on South Noble Street, blocked at Fourth Street. According to The Anniston Star archives, the building was home to Noble Street Motors in 1955 and later housed Robinson Tire Service in 1972. Authorities have not released an estimated damage cost or timeline for the investigation.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A Man and his Linotype machine
City officials unearthed a piece of history Monday when they discovered an old 1,100-pound Linotype machine in the vacant Higginbotham Printing building that was demolished by city crews on Moore Avenue. Like a rusting steam engine in a rail yard, the old Linotype machine—coated in dust and rust—stood as a relic of an era when hot lead was used to set type for printing presses. Before the wrecking ball sent the old machine to its final resting place photos were taken to document the retired behemoth. The Anniston Star visited Higginbotham Printing in March 2001 for a feature article on Eugene Burnham, the business's Linotype machine operator at the time. Burnham, 71 then, passed away at age 72 in June 2002. The machine was a Mergenthaler Linotype NY, Model 31. The Linotype is named after its inventor, a German immigrant named Ottmar Mergenthaler. In 1884, he patented a machine that allowed printers to set an entire line of type at once—hence the name Linotype. Before then, type was set by hand, one character at a time, much as it had been when Gutenberg invented the printing press 400 years earlier. The Linotype quickly became the standard for newspapers and printing shops, remaining in widespread use into the 1960s. 'When I go, it'll go,' Burnham said in 2001. The Linotype had been at Higginbotham since 1957, and Burnham was probably its last operator. Higginbotham Building BW This is a photo from 2001 of Eugene Burnham operating the Linotype machine for the business. Photo by Bill Wilson, The Anniston Star When Burnham turned on the massive machine, the steady, smooth spinning of rubber belts made the Linotype sound a bit like an old sewing machine. Burnham had 54 years of experience with the Linotype in 2001. He learned the craft at The Jacksonville News in the 1940s and took a job at Higginbotham in 1960. He sat in a battered chair that was surely as old as the machine itself. A built-in lamp illuminated the keyboard. Lowercase letters were on black keys to the left, numerals and punctuation in blue in the middle, and capital letters in white on the right. Each keystroke moved a small brass matrix, or mat, into position; the mats contained the mold for the required letter. A magazine above Burnham's head held upwards of 1,500 mats. 'That T is doubling,' he said. 'I heard it that time.' He was ever-vigilant against typos. 'We don't have spell-check on this machine,' he said. Years of focusing on individual letters, numbers, and punctuation marks had ruined him for reading normally. 'I've set the type so long, I read everything in a line,' he said. At full speed, the machine came to life like one of those contraptions in a Dr. Seuss book. Higginbotham Building BW This is a photo from 2001 of Eugene Burnham operating the Linotype machine for the business. Photo by Bill Wilson, The Anniston Star Elevators, cranks, mold discs, levers, dogs, pins, clutches, and pots worked in speedy synchronicity—all to produce a single metal slug. All that for a slender strip of metal a few inches long, with tiny, perfectly formed letters rising from its surface. 'It's an amazing machine,' Burnham said. As a classic Linotype operator's gag, Burnham made a slug for The Anniston Star reporter and handed it to him while it was still warm—just seconds before it cooled from its 550-degree molten state. White scars on Burnham's forearm marked his own encounters with the hot metal. Globs of metal on the ceiling above the machine served as evidence of near misses. Such encounters explained why many Linotype operators weren't sad to see the machines go. In 2001, Phillip Sanguinetti, president of Consolidated Publishing, which owned The Star, recalled the day in 1970 when the paper shipped off the last of its 13 Linotypes. One of the operators gave the departing machine a swift kick, Sanguinetti remembered. 'You S.O.B., you won't spit on me anymore,' the worker said. Paper and print shop owners weren't sorry, either. The Linotype's immediate replacement, cold-type offset printing, was far faster and cleaner. Higginbotham once had four Linotypes and four operators. By 2001, demand for Linotype printing was rare, but the machine was still useful for jobs on pre-printed paper or paper with multiple thicknesses. When the Linotype was needed at Higginbotham, they called Burnham. He was the only one left who could run it. Burnham said in 2001 that he and the Linotype would leave together. Higginbotham Building BW An old Linotype machine was discovered by city officials that had been in place since the 1950s. Photo by Bill Wilson, The Anniston Star Now, as city crews prepare to haul away the rusting Linotype to an unknown fate, it marks the final end to Burnham's long kinship with the old letterpress machine.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Fire at Western Sizzlin in Oxford Causes Temporary Closure
OXFORD — Crews were at Western Sizzlin in Oxford on Monday cleaning up after a fire that broke out in the kitchen Sunday night, leaving the popular restaurant with smoke and water damage. The fire, which started in the kitchen, did not destroy the building, but caused enough damage to force its temporary closure. A sign on the door informed customers that the restaurant, located at 200 Hamric Dr E, was closed due to the fire. Owner Kenneth Phillips said workers are busy removing water from the restaurant and assessing damage. WESTERN SIZZLIN BW A kitchen fire caused smoke and water damage at the Oxford Western Sizzlin Sunday night. Photo by Bill Wilson, The Anniston Star "We appreciate everyone's prayers and thoughts," Phillips said. He added that the restaurant may remain closed for up to a week depending on the city of Oxford's requirements and the extent of damage to the ceiling and roof. Customers were encouraged to check the restaurant's Facebook page for updates. Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sparks said the fire department received the call at 11:08 p.m. Sunday. Upon arrival, firefighters saw heavy smoke coming from the building. "There were flames coming out the top of the building. There was a fire in the kitchen. It went up through the vent and was the fire we were seeing through the roof," Sparks said. "It wasn't actually burning through the roof. It was up through the vent pipes, and so as far as fire damage, there's not a lot of fire damage. There's a lot of smoke damage. The whole building was full of smoke," he said. Sparks noted that there was also some water damage and damage to the hood system in the kitchen. The fire was quickly brought under control. WESTERN SIZZLIN BW A kitchen fire caused smoke and water damage at the Oxford Western Sizzlin Sunday night. Photo by Bill Wilson, The Anniston Star "We were on scene for probably an hour or better, but most of it was getting the smoke out. Smoke was the biggest problem," Sparks said. Officials continue to investigate the cause of the fire, and restoration efforts are ongoing.
