Fire hits Ohio Veterinary Medical Association building

A fire caused $105,000 worth of damage to the Ohio Veterinary Medical Association's (OVMA) building in Upper Arlington, Ohio June 1.

The fire department told Jack Advent, executive director of the OVMA, that a lightning strike or an electrical malfunction probably caused the fire.

Advent says the fire did extensive damage to half of the building and the OVMA employees have temporarily moved to a new space only two minutes away.

Advent says he was awakened by a phone call from his security company at about 3 a.m. June 1 saying that someone had broken into the building and entered the front door. He then received a call from the fire department minutes later saying there was a fire and it was firefighters who'd broken down the door.

"No one likes to go through something like this but we're fortunate that no one got hurt," Advent says. "The damage was expensive but we were able to restore operations fairly quickly. It could have been a lot worse."

Advent says it will take around three months to complete the repairs to the building.