I'll start with the before. I posted this following picture last winter after our big strom. You may remember it:
That is the South side of our downtown "City Square".
Tonight, it looks like this:
Wouldn't you know it, the ONE STINKING TIME I didn't have my backpack with me in the van which I would have had my "real" camera with me, something like this happens. So, this is as good as I could get with my camera phone.
It started in the camera store. I had to go to the church to start moving all the equipment into the new sound booth and they were fighting it then. At that time, the smoke was only coming out of the camera store. I stopped again when I came home.
There is a fire wall between the "Chapins" (furniture store) building and the rest. When I left, the fire had not gotten through the fire wall YET, but I will be very surprised if it holds.
That entire block is gone, from right to left, it is a furniture store on the West end, an appliance store, an insurance agent, a camera store, and a clothing store on the East End. Even if they "save" the furniture store, the smoke and heat damage still has to be intense.
I took those pictures a block away across the park and I could feel the heat on my face from there.
Its a sad day here.
The only good thing is that they are "just" businesses . . . so no one probably got hurt.
We had a fire near here recently in a brick building, I was amazed how the brick held up but everything inside was devoured.
Afterward, once they boarded up the windows you couldn't even tell there was a fire, it looked like the place had just been boarded up and abandoned. I wonder if it will be similar by you.
