Firefighters from several rural departments were called to a structure fire in Maquon Thursday afternoon.
Maquon Fire Chief Patrick Hohenbery tells WGIL that he got the call around 11:45 a.m. of the structure fire in the 400-block of Main Street, the sight of Strode Garage.
Hohenbery says that a dozen area fire departments responded to the scene. He said that the structure hadn’t been used in about 10 years and was full of classic cars and motorcycles and had a completely full basement.
Because of all the auto parts inside, the State Fire Marshal’s office said the estimated damage was around $3M. “He says with all the material that was in it all the cars… there [were] Corvettes and Indian Motorcycles. There was a bunch of classic cars and they all burned up in the basement,” Hohenbery said Friday morning.
The full building led to a more dangerous environment for fire crews to battle the blaze. Hoehenbery says there were fumes from melting plastic firefighters had to deal with and he suggested the building probably had asbestos in it as well.
Another major problem for firefighters to deal with? A lack of water. Firefighters were using water being pumped in town to fight the blaze but when the power to the building was burned up, it cut power to the whole town and the water pump.
“We had water until when the power burned off the building. It killed the power to the whole town, the water pump, so the whole town of Maquon didn’t have water the whole time we had the fire and we couldn’t water out of the hydrants. Where the fire was at, it was right beside the water tower and somehow it was on the same power line.”
He said that water was being brought in from Yates City, Elmwood, Knoxville, and a dry hydrant in Rapatee during the course of the fire. Yates City eventually had to cut off sending water and the dry hydrant in Rapatee failed.
The remaining structures of the building were knocked down due to them being a safety hazard. Hohenbery says he didn’t leave the scene until after 10:00 p.m.
Hohenbery says that the State Fire Marshal’s office is investigating the cause of the fire.
