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2026
The disaster roster runs to the present year: On Monday, 8 June 2026, the historic Lafayette Building caught fire at about 8:20 a.m. — flames roaring thirty feet in the air, smoke forcing from shut windows — in a blaze residents spotted from in front of the courthouse across the street. The fire extended across the entire fifth floor, collapsed the roof and shattered windows; the fire marshal told reporters the cause was unknown and would remain so until crews could investigate, and there were no known injuries or fatalities. The smoke shut the County-City Building at 227 West Jefferson Boulevard for the day. The building was part of the city's fabric: erected in 1903 as the Dean Building, it was South Bend's first five-story office building, declared a historical landmark in 1970 and renamed the Lafayette Building in 1973; long vacant and in danger of demolition, it had been seized by the county in 2017 over some $2 million in back property taxes, and a 2025 plan to convert its upper floors to apartments had fallen through weeks before the fire. A vacant landmark, a collapsed roof and a closed seat of government for a day: the fire is this roster's current last entry, and the building's fate stands open in the record as this section closes.
Sources:
- South Bend Tribune, 8 June 2026, "Lafayette Building fire collapsed roof and shut down county building" — the 8:20 a.m. fire, the fifth floor and roof, the absence of known injuries, the County-City Building closure, and the building's 1903 origins, landmarking, seizure and failed conversion as the Tribune reports them.