Published: March 26, 2009 09:29 am      

Fire just keeps on smoldering

There’s still work to be done as the smoldering heat continues to burn ever so slightly after a Tuesday fire devastated a historic building in downtown Pauls Valley.

Firefighters and even a demolition crew were hard at work on the day after as the fire in the 100 block of South Chickasaw resulted in massive damages to an L-shape building that housed a longtime pawn shop and driving school.

The damages were so extensive plans are now in place to have the building taken completely down once firefighters can safely get in the remaining structure and clear out debris.

The big hold up is the fact the fire is still technically going thanks its tricky placement, Pauls Valley Fire Chief Joe Eddy said Wednesday.

His hopes are that will change by today when local firefighters are expected to be able to safely get in the building that Honest Bus Pawn Shop and Precision Driving School called home up until two days ago.

“Hopefully we can get in there and start digging it out,” Eddy said.

Firefighters from four local and area departments came together Tuesday afternoon to battle for nearly two hours to contain the fire to a building dating back more than a century.

Although not an official conclusion, Eddy said Wednesday he believes the cause of the fire was electrical in nature.

“We’re suspecting it was electrical, upstairs in the pawn shop. It started in the pawn shop up on the top,” he said.

The pawn shop is located in the middle of the South Chickasaw block. The entire building then goes to the back and toward McClure Avenue where the driving school had been located.

Eddy said it was already an intense fire when he and his guys first arrived Tuesday at the pawn shop.

“When we first got here the second floor was really cooking,” he said.

“Flames were coming through the roof.”

The age of the building, constructed back in 1898, was the likely reason the intense fire “burned like gasoline” after being ignited.

“The lumber in a building like this one is over 100 years old. So it’s real dry and burns real quick,” said the local fire chief.

One of the big concerns for firefighters was keeping the fire from spreading to other buildings and other businesses.

The good news is they were successful in that effort as a jewelry store located directly on the corner of Chickasaw and McClure sustained only minimal damage, mostly from water sprayed to battle the fire.

A loan company business on the north side of the pawn shop came away with “basically no damage,” Eddy said.

“We braced up the north wall to the pawn shop to keep it from falling on the loan company next door. We couldn’t brace the west wall, which is why we shut down (U.S. Highway) 77,” he said, referring to the front of the shop.

A demolition crew was brought in Wednesday to slowly take down the upper walls of the pawn shop on those north and west sides.

Eddy stressed the reason the fire didn’t spread and do even more damage was the help of three area fire departments.

“I want to thank the fire departments from Wynnewood, Stratford and Purcell for coming to assist us,” he said.

“We couldn’t have done it by ourselves. Without their help we wouldn’t have been able to keep it contained to one building.”

As for the fire, it just won’t go away — at least for now.

Shortly after local firefighters arrived on Tuesday much of the second floor of the pawn shop collapsed creating a large pile up of debris on the ground floor.

Other parts of the building later had the roof fall in to the top of the first floor.

It’s here a smoldering fire has remained trapped in an area out of the reach of firefighters and at times has slightly flared back up while still remaining contained.

That means the threat of a rekindled fire will continue until firefighters can get in and clear scorched debris from the building, which is the plan for today Eddy added.