A fire Friday afternoon swept through the second floor level of the building where Studio Six Limited is located at 105 North Fourth Street, downtown Smithville.
The Smithville Volunteer Fire Department was called to the scene at 3:54 p.m. No one was at the business at the time of the fire and no one was injured.
Chief Charlie Parker says firefighters could see fire and smoke coming through a second floor window upon their arrival. “We had a fire on the second floor above where the Studio Six Studios is located. The fire was in the storage space on the second floor. When we arrived it was fully involved. Heavy smoke was coming from the second floor and out of the window. We made access into the second floor to get it knocked down, but it’s pretty much a total loss on the upstairs part. It’s burned very extensively up there. It got in through the roof area and up into the attic area. We made a stop on it right at the roof level, but it’s burned pretty extensively up at the top. The first floor was not really burned but there was damage where water came through the floor. There was also heavy smoke on the bottom floor also. It’s not a total loss downstairs but there’s gonna be some extensive damage downstairs just due to the heat, smoke, and water.”
Chief Parker says firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to the apartment building next door. ” Next door there’s apartments, both upper and lower. We had a lot of smoke coming from around the brick and everywhere else by the fire wall up at the roof level. We were concerned about it moving over into the other apartments. We made access to the upper and lower apartments and there was no smoke in either one of those. There’s a brick fire wall in between it too so that helped save that part of it. As far as we know, there was no smoke or fire damage in the apartments.”
A woman and child were reportedly evacuated from the adjacent apartment building as a safety precaution.
Chief Parker expressed his thanks to Smithville Electric System, Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, the Smithville Police Department, and DeKalb EMS for their assistance. “We want to thank Smithville Electric. They did help us access the roof area. It’s kinda tough getting a ladder up there because it’s so high up, but we got them to bring their boom truck up here where we could get up there to check the roof area and make sure the fire didn’t break through the roof. We do appreciate them. They pulled the meters. The gas company was here to help us also.”
The cause of the fire is undetermined.
A video of the fire is available at www.smithvillefire.com. on the Hotshots page.
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