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Article By: Noelle McGee ([email protected])

Source:News Gazette (local newspaper).

SIDELL- Fire officials are investigating a blaze that destroyed a row of two-story buildings, estimated to be more than 100 years old.

Though one building was vacant, two housed a hair salon and an appliance store. Village officials said a Danville man was renovating an old bakery in a fourth building into apartments.

"It's a tragedy to the community," said Kathy Roller, a longtime Sidell resident and patron of the hair salon.

"I'm just glad no one was hurt," said Janet Nees, the mayor of the southwestern Vermilion County town.

One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exaustion, though no other injuries were reported as of Tuesday evening. Firefighters were called to the structure fire in the 100 block of Gray Street at 2:12 p.m. When they arrived, black smoke was rolling from The Gray Street Salon, one of the middle buildings.

Flames quickly spread to the vacant building just north of the salon, then to a yellow building to the south being renovated by Bill Demmin. Three hours later, smoke was coming from the second story of Callahan Appliance on the south end of the block, despite firefighters' attempts to contain the blaze.

"It's a cluster of old buildings, and all of them are old," Sidell Police Cheif Brad Prunkard said. "I was afraid... they were all going to go."

Though authorities say the fire appears to have started toward the back of the salon, its cause is still unknown. Damage estimates were not available Tuesday evening.

When the fire broke out, Lori Fraley, the salon owner, was the only person in the buildings. The appliance store was not open.

Fraley, also of Sidell, was having a late lunch at her desk when she heard cracking and popping noises above her.

"It was coming from the ceiling," she recalled. "It just got louder and louder."

When Fraley picked up the phone to call 9-1-1, the power went out, so she grabbed her purse and ran out the front door. That's when she saw the smoke.

"I feel very lucky that nobody got hurt, and I didn't have any customers," said Fraley, who was still dressed in her black apron. "I just can't believe my building is gone."

Around the time that Fraley was calling for help, Nees and village Trustee Ron Brown were at Brown's house a few blocks away, discussing a tile problem. When they heard sirens, they looked south and noticed a column of smoke curling into the sky.

"Then I could smell the smoke," Brown added.

"I thought, 'Oh no!'" Nees said. "I was just glad it didn't happen yestarday with all of the high winds."

Sidell firefighters were assisted by crews from at least 10 fire districts, including Allerton, Bismarck, Broadlands-Longview, Carroll Township, Catlin, Fairmount, Georgetown, Henning, Oakwood and Westville (all from Illinois).

Georgetown firefighters brought in a snorkel truck to help attack the blaze. Others set up a portable tank on Dickson Street, just south of the buildings, to feed water to the snorkel.

Prunkard spent the afternoon and evening directing fire trucks and keeping a crowd of residents and others at bay.

He said that the buildings supposedly had fire walls.

"But there's no telling how old those buildings are," Prunkard said. "How good condition they were in, who knows? I'm sure there's some mortar missing after years of being there."

Brown was concerned about the town's water supply.

"We only have a limited supply in our tower," he said of the residents' drinking water. Two hours after the fire started, the water level, normally 117 feet, was down to 110 feet, and the main pressure, normally at 45 P.S.I. (per square inch), was at 40 P.S.I.

"When it hits 20, we got to a boil order," he said, adding that he and water superintendant Loren Kinney were watching the pressure very closely.

A boil order was not necessary, village Trustee Jeffrey Brown said later.

As they watched the salon roof cave in, Brown and Nees tried to recall whether the village had seen another fire of this magnitude.

"Nothing where it took down half of a block," said Nees, a longtime resident who has been mayor for 24 years.

Brown recalled a fire in the mid-1960s that damaged a Masonic hall, a plumbing store, and old theater and a grocery store in that same block. He also remembered a fire in the 1950s that destoryed an old harness shop and barbershop across the alley.

"Those buildings were never replaced," said Brown, who has lived in Sidell for about 70 years.

Fraley said her business was insured, but she wasn't sure on Tuesday afternoon whether she would rebuild or relocate. She said she and her husband, David, remodeled the building two years ago, turning it from and old funeral home into her salon.



Add-ons by Kirada

April 24, 2007 is the date of the fire. At my house, some 15-20 miles away, you could see the smoke across the cornfield next door (to the south-west).

My stepfather and I walked around the block (through an alley) of the four consumed buildings, and would get within 15 feet of the buildings and chose to go no further to avoid injury (only one firefighter looked at us like we were stupid, that, or it was because of my "Tilton Firefighter" shirt and hat).

Every so often, you can see melted tile and other roofing necessities falling through the yellow-building window from the ceiling. Firefighters used the snorkel and other 5'' hoses to try and knock the front of the salon down into the building to help smother the fire. Instead, the aluminum panel fell into the street.

I took many pictures, and I will put them here after the film is developed and they get scanned.

The fourth building (white) was soon engolfed in the flames, but only on the second story where the fire spread to it from the yellow building. Flames could be seen licking the air from the rooftops, some 3-6 feet high.

The singing (or burning) of the white building can be seen standing from the outside. It was singed right on the corner next to the yellow building.

Finally, at 8:32 p.m. Central U.S. time, firfighters were returning home to their stations. Lynch (another fire department) also tended the fire, though they were not listed.

Tilton, the department I was on, was not called to the scene because we don't have a tanker (a fire engine used to carry only water and hoses).

Article Posted: April 25, 2007
Fire Started: April 24, 2007 at 2:12 p.m.
Posted By: Carrie Shaw-Monroe (Kirada)
Article By: Noelle McGee of the News Gazette.

May I ask what the point of this is? It seems a bit like spam almost. It is ashame about those buildings but no one was hurt.

Well Drew, the point is that I am a firefighter (I'm not meaning to sound rude), and I know there are people out here (somewhere) that are interested in fires. And it hit me hard because I couldn't make the call to help these people out...

It's like a guilty-yet-informing-thingie-mer-article. :O

But if a fanart mod thinks that this is spam, they can lock it. o_o'