Menu
Inferno destroys structure, engulfs town in toxic haze
Fueled by a building chocked with flammable substances, a rampaging Friday night conflagration leveled a venerable Nevada business, knocked off power for blocks and choked the downtown area with toxic fumes from a towering black and gray cloud of volcano-like smoke.
Reported by a woman across the street just after 5:30 p.m., the fire in the back of NAPA Auto Parts at 306 E. Walnut St. started somewhat gradually in the teeth of streams of water from the pressurized hoses of Nevada firefighters.
However, the blaze simply could not be stopped or even slowed much. Flames erupted through the roof at 6:06 and threatened the building to the west at 6:10. The inferno's voracious northward progression blew out the NAPA storefront with a "whoosh" at 6:50 p.m; the north walls had fallen in already, by 6:30. Officials said the cause of the fire hadn't been determined.
Steel cylinders full of oxygen and acetylene gas were heard and seen periodically exploding throughout the emergency, but undaunted city firefighters held their positions within yards of the flames, shooting water from several hoses at the sides and from a snorkel truck overhead. Several area fire departments arrived to help, and were put to work in short order.
Store owner Alvin Briscoe, who's owned the store since 2001, told the Daily Mail while standing across the street near Walnut and Lynn Street that he had closed about 5:30 and was on his way home when notified of the blaze.
Asked if the business and building were insured, Briscoe and building owner Tim Gotschall said they were unsure how much coverage was in effect, but it will probably turn out to be inadequate to cover the total amount of the losses.
"The building is insured," Gotschall said, "but I can tell you that it's not nearly enough."
A steady north wind kept the increasingly toxic fumes from collecting in the area of the fire, but by the time the east and west walls had fallen in about 7:15, Nevada police had taped off the whole downtown area and were requiring everyone to leave to keep them from inhaling too much of the smoke.
NPD Sgt. Steve Bastow said homeowners and renters had been evacuated from numerous homes, as had more than 20 people from the L.W. Apartments and M&B Apartments.
Worried overhead power lines would snap and electrocute someone, firefighters unhooked and moved their hoses from the middle of Walnut to let men in a Kansas City Power & Light truck drive up in front of the store and into the teeth of outward leaping flames.
The KCPL men unhooked the lines there and at Walnut and Lynn, putting much of the downtown area in the dark.
Vernon County Ambulance District supervisor Sonya Tumm described evacuating numerous people, concurring with Bastow that no one had appeared to be injured, but saying some infirm people had to be moved out of their homes to the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center. All residents within two blocks of the scene were evacuated.
At 9:38 p.m., public safety officials were instructed to pull in the perimeter by one block. At 9:42, Fort Scott fire trucks put their ladders away, and a few minutes later were released from the scene. The fire was reported "under control" at 10:07 p.m.
Firefighters also responded in trucks from Deerfield, Compton Junction, Milo and Fort Scott.