Massive fire destroys Paoli's downtown square
Posted: Nov 13, 2010 3:02 PM EST
Most Popular Stories
Reporter: Jennifer Baileys - Jbaileys@Fox41.com
LOUISVILLE, KY (WDRB, FOX41) - Businesses and apartments gone. an entire city block goes up in flames early Saturday morning.
The community of Paoli, Indiana waits for what could be days to sift through the rubble to find out if there is anything left.
Orange County firefighters we called to the fire at around 8 Saturday morning.
"Initially when I saw the smoke, I thought it was somebody who was starting a fire place," said William Windhorst, business owner.
The smoke increased sending a clear message to Windhorst that it was more than just a fire place.
"Definitely a tragic thing and really traumatic and huge for this town," said Windhorst looking at Paoli's Town Square.
Investigators tell Fox 41, fire ripped through six businesses and 27 apartments early Saturday morning. Bill Fullington with the Orange County Sheriff's Department said the fire likely started in the Old Orange County Bank Building.
"There's a lot of old timber in there and once it gets to smoldering, they'll smolder for a few days," said Fullington.
Firefighters poured water on the buildings from all corners. Smoke blanketed Downtown Paoli for most of the day. Neighbors watched, together as flames destroyed history and reduced what was once a center peace of town to rubble.
"There was actually a furniture store on the corner which is now a tax service, and then the Old National Bank which recently built a new location on the other side of town moved out probably a month or two ago," Windhorst said.
The smoke was so thick, a Fox 41 camera could barely pick up flames. For that reason, investigators evacuated even more people from the town. Fullington said a total of 50 apartments were evacuated and no one was injured.
Meanwhile, the flames took a toll on firefighters as many of them had to take a break between battle. Help from all over Indiana provided some relief.
"We've got every department in our county, then Washington County, Dubois County, Martin County, Lawrence County is here. We've got EMA directors from all the surrounding counties are here," said Fullington.
"This is my home, this is where I've lived my whole life," said Ann Delph, neighbor.
Delph said home will never quite look like it once did. The face of Paoli, Indiana is changed forever.
"There's a lot of history going up in smoke there," said Delph.
The Red Cross and local churches opened shelters for those evacuated Saturday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment