St. Peter Fire Chief Kevin Jenne says the cause of a fire that destroyed four adjoined downtown buildings early Sunday morning is currently listed as undetermined. The State Fire Marshal was called to the scene on Sunday and is scheduled back on Thursday for further investigation.
Jenne says there are still parts of the buildings that continued to burn on Monday afternoon. They are keeping a special watch to make sure the blaze doesn’t flare up again.
Jenne says it appears the fire started inside one of the buildings and spread rapidly due to the amount of materials inside as well as the strong wind. He feels the building fire caused the problems with the 69 KV main Ameren Illinois line in front of the structures and not the other way around.
Jenne says firemen were also hampered by the extreme cold that was freezing up equipment. By the time the St. Peter water tower had been drained, he reports firemen were already starting to shuttle water from the Farina Fire Station and another fire hydrant in Farina.
The main occupants of the building were Authentic Street Signs and a doll business run by the owner’s daughter. There was also a karate studio upstairs. A plumbing company, Taylor Sales and Service, used a separate building for storage.
Jenne was happy they could save Lutz Outdoors, a sporting goods business in the former lumber yard building. He notes the building was only about two feet away from the burning buildings. Firemen were helped by the strong winds blowing the other direction.
Some of the buildings across Main Street or Route 185 got so hot windows broke out or siding melted.
The power outage initially left 1,314 Ameren Illinois customers without service, but all but 121 were back on in just over an hour. The rest had to wait until four Sunday afternoon after two damaged power roles were replaced.
Jenne felt the firefighting effort went well. St. Peter received mutual aid assistance from Kinmundy-Alma, Patoka, Farina, Edgewood, St. Elmo, Brownstown, and Vandalia.
