Fire in Monticello still smoldering

MONTICELLO, Ind (WLFI) - Firefighters in Monticello won't be leaving the scene of a late night fire any time soon. The Monticello Fire Department is staging a 48-hour watch of the Hall's Mall building to be sure flames won't spark again.

They are also monitoring the structure of the building before going inside to investigate a cause. People living in Monticello say it's sad to see a part of the community go up in flames.

Beverly Pauley witnessed the fire.

"The flames were shooting out the window and everything," said Pauley. "There were fire trucks all over the place and they were doing what they're trying to do now: keep the place under control."

The warehouse's tenant, Riverview Pallets, stored hundreds of wooden pallets in the building. These that burned intensely through the night. Monticello Fire Captain said the department is not allowing people into the structure yet. He said it is likely that heavy equipment will be used to pull the building apart to get the fire out completely.

Fire Captain Stephen Fisher said the safety of the building is one of the reasons why firefighters cannot begin the investigation, on how the fire started.

Embers from the burning building floated through the area Tuesday night causing 20 nearby homes to be evacuated. Those residents were able to return home in Wednesday morning.

"Obviously you come to a fire like this, your not gonna save the building but your gonna be able to contain it keep it from spreading to residences those types of things," said Monticello Mayor Jason Thompson.

A total of 17 neighboring fire departments came to the aid of Monticello firefighters. Captain Fisher said four aerial trucks were needed to combat the flames. He estimates more that 365,000 gallons of water were pumped from hydrants and another 381,000 gallons were pumped from the river.

"We have a lot of void spaces that have fire. Its going to be real difficult. We're going to have to let part of that burn out - where we can start extinguishing it - or it's going to have to be heavy equipment pulling it out. Then we can get to the fire", said Fisher.

The building, formerly Bryan Factory, had already survived a tornado.

Mayor Thompson said the city is already looking forward. He said he's been in contact with the building's owner and hopes something new for the community can be built out of this loss.