Downtown Fire Temporarily Shuts Down Broadway; Some Businesses Lose Big
Five fire crews responded to an apartment fire in downtown Fargo.
The fire started around 10:15 Friday morning, in an apartment on Broadway.
The building sprinkler system helped keep the flames in the kitchen, where the fire started.
“Looks like it was possibly a cooking fire,” says Fargo Fire Battalion Chief Craig Nelson.
It took 17 firefighters to put out the fire on the second floor of this apartment complex.
The smoke filled the second level and tenants were evacuated from their homes.
Broadway from 4th to 3rd Avenue North was temporarily shut down until the fire was completely out.
Now, firefighters had a new task.
Nelson adds, “A lot of what they’re working to do now is because of the water we had to spray but a lot of the water that came from the sprinkler system. That put a lot of water onto the second floor and its working its way down to the first floor.”
The fight against fire didn’t last long but it looks like some local businesses will be fighting water damage.
“Shannalee and Proper and Prim got a little bit more damage than we did,” says Eyes on Broadway owner Deb Tufte.
Eyes on Broadway was one of the lucky few that were near the fire.
Tufte, “We didn’t get a lot of damage we just have a little bit of the ceiling tiles. Patients still came in. They had to park a little ways away. Wasn’t an inconvenience, we just kept working.”
“The fire alarm went off and all of a sudden the fire trucks were here. There was a little bit of water coming into the building we were in. So we’re fine,” says Eyes on Broadway client Barbara Swank.
Businesses didn’t stop for this shop but the same thing can’t be said for their neighbors.
The owners of Shannalee did not want us to record inside.
But Prim and Proper let us see the damage done to their boutique.
“We’re downtown. We’ll get through it. We’ll help each other,” says Tufte.
Fargo Fire says the total cost of the damage is still unknown.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
