Fire Officials Investigate Early Morning Blaze In Crystal Springs

Cleanup is underway in Crystal Springs. An early morning blaze destroyed some buildings in the Historic Business District.

The State Chief Deputy Fire Marshall tells us the fire started at 1:00 am at Mr. D's Restaurant on South Jackson Street. Investigators have not determined a cause. The fire spread to at least three other buildings, a Masonic Lodge and a couple of apartments. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

"We lost the building. We know it is a 100-percent loss," explains the owner Dionne and Daughter Construction.

Ron Dionne is still in shock that a blaze destroyed his business.

"I lost everything, all of my tools. I don't even have a screw-driver to work with any more," recalls Dionne.

He says he lost about 25-thousand dollars worth of construction equipment. But, his insurance is only for 12-thousand dollars. Dionne also says he lost some family heirlooms.

"We have antique Persian rugs underneath the bricks that my wife inherited. There’s so much family history in that building. It’s gone now, we lost it," says Dionne.

Dionne and his wife have owned this building for 15 years.

"There’s a decade worth of work in here. We had plans on what we were going to do in retirement and those plans are gone now," comments Dionne.

But, he tries to find humor in this unfortunate situation.

"Looks like it'll be a parking lot to me because we've always had a parking lot problem on Jackson Street," jokes Dionne.

Fast Tax owner, Andrew Lloyd, is lucky the fire didn't destroy his business.

"It doesn't look as bad as the three businesses beside me. We had little roof damage and some flooding, you know, water damage," Lloyd tells News Channel 12.

And, he's thankful that he has a couple of months to repair his building before the busy tax season gets kicked into high gear.

"We will reopen as long as they don't close Jackson Street," continues Lloyd.

George Wilkes owns a barber shop around the corner. He says the community has lost a piece of its history.

"If you've ever had a loss like this you can't imagine. It’s a financial loss, a spiritual loss; the people will have to relocate," expresses Wilkes.

Many people from the community came out to see the aftermath of the fire.

"We really haven't been through anything like this. This is a first time for us. We’ll make it through just fine," adds Monica Davis.

Because of the fire all three of the schools in Crystal Springs were forced to close Monday because they did not have power or water. We’re told the schools will be open tomorrow.