Fire!!

Hey, all!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've tried logging on several times, but they have updated Blogger and this is the first time I've been able to get logged in since the changes. I'll post a couple of times to get all of the updates!

The most recent news is a fire that destroyed a vital section of downtown Wauseon over the weekend. We got a phone call at the house around 4:45am Saturday morning that downtown Wauseon was on fire. Jeff and Melinda's office is downtown and we weren't sure what was going on exactly, so we quickly threw on some clothes and headed downtown. We could look out our back doors and see the orange glow from downtown from where we live.

We got downtown to find that the fire was across the street from Jeff and Melinda's office. The fire start at Doc Holliday's (a restaurant where the Robinson family frequently eats) and quickly spread to the surrounding buildings. It destroyed several businesses: Welles Bowen Real Estate, Doc Holliday's, Shaw's Clothing, JBW Computer, the Health Food Store, a Spanish church, another tea or coffee shop (I think), and Gallippo's Photography.

This is what we saw when we first got downtown:

When we realized Shaw's clothing store was on fire, the reality of it all suddenly hit a VERY personal note. Jason's sister, Teresa, is getting married May 12th. She had her wedding dress at Shaw's for alterations. When we saw Shaw's burning like this, we thought for sure that her dress was gone. Fortunately, though, we found out later that the owners were able to get in the store for a few minutes to save what they could. The store owner's wife, Cheryl, was able to save some wedding gowns and prom dresses--including Teresa's! In fact, if you look in the Toledo Blade, there is a picture of one of the wedding dresses saved. It's Teresa's dress. :)

Also, (ironically) the family and bridesmaids were planning a wedding shower for Jake and Teresa Saturday night. The shower was supposed to be upstairs at Doc Hollidays. The family had a busy morning/afternoon replanning an entire wedding shower. (It all came together wonderfully and was a good time!)

Some more pictures from the fire:

Newspaper reports said that firefighters pumped over 2 million gallons of water on the fire. Wauseon doesn't have that much water, so trucks were bringing water from nearby communities and filling these pools so there was enough water to fight the fire. I've heard that there were over 300 firefighers called in (some from Michigan, even!) and nearly two dozen departments. It was amazing looking down Fulton St.--all you could see were fire trucks and firefighters!

Another plume of smoke. The whole town smelled like smoke for two days! (I haven't been downtown today to see if it still smells like smoke.) Fortunately, there was a fire wall between Welles Bowen and Hammontree's, so the fire didn't spread any further that way.

The smoke down Elm St. This is where the church and Gallippo's were located. The further you worked you way around the building, the more smoke there was.

The smoke from the back side of the building. We were the only ones back there (go figure!).

A firefighter fighting the fire from above...

The aftermath. This is the white building that was on the corner of Fulton and Elm. They finally had to demolish it in order to put the fire out. Most of these buildings were 100+ years old.

This is what used to be Shaw's Clothing (the brown building to the left) and to the right, the Health Food Store (along with the church and Gallippo's). The whole building is gone now.

The mayor is meeting with a task force this morning to discuss rebuilding and what to do next. Hopefully, they are able to rebuild this section on town!