Overnight fire destroys abandoned Welch apartment building downtown

Flames tore through an abandoned six-story apartment building behind the McDowell County Courthouse before dawn, turning one of downtown Welch’s most visible vacant properties into a collapsed shell and sending more than 15 fire trucks into the city’s center.

The fire was first reported around 2:40 a.m. Friday, April 24, 2026, on Court Street, where the old Buckingham Apartment building fronted both Court Street and Howard Street. McDowell County Dispatch confirmed several fire departments were called to the scene, and crews worked from the first alarms to keep the blaze from spreading farther into the downtown business district.

By the time firefighters reached the building, the structure was already fully engulfed, with six floors burning hard. Large sections later collapsed, leaving the apartment building far more unstable than it was before the fire. Even after the main flames were knocked down, officials said the scene could take several days of dousing hotspots before the fire is fully extinguished.

No injuries were reported, but the location made the incident especially alarming for nearby residents and anyone working or walking in the shadow of the courthouse. David Timothy Buss, who lives nearby, said he did not realize the building was on fire until more than an hour after crews had already arrived, a reminder of how quickly an abandoned structure can go from a nuisance to a major downtown emergency.

The cause remained under investigation Friday, and the fire left unanswered a familiar set of local questions: who owns the Buckingham Apartment building, whether the property had been flagged before as a hazard, and how many more long-vacant structures in Welch still sit one spark away from becoming the next emergency. In a county seat where the courthouse anchors the skyline and old buildings shape the streets below it, the loss of another downtown structure deepens the concern over vacant-property enforcement, demolition delays and the continuing risk posed by buildings that have been left to deteriorate in place.