TRENTON, Mo. — A joint investigation by the ATF and Missouri State Fire Marshall is underway after a fire Monday destroyed a Trenton, Missouri pawn store, hair salon and severely damaged the Chamber of Commerce which also houses the license bureau.
"It was really smoking and then you could see it wasn’t flames, it was fire coming out of the top," Marie Dolan, a witness said.
What started as a call of smoke coming from a building ended up turning a corner of downtown Trenton into an inferno.
"Flames were shooting out of the west side and pretty close to the power lines," a firefighter said in dispatch transmission archived by Broadcastify.com.
The first wave of firefighters who responded to the 600 block of Main Street encountered water issues.
"Just unable to get the larger valves open on them, so they had to switch to some other fire hydrants that were just across the street and a few blocks away," Glen Briggs, Grundy County emergency management director, told 41 Action News.
Dolan, whose husband owns a real estate company across the street, watched as the building began to buckle.
"They fought it for quite a while, and after a while some of the front caved out," Dolan said.
Trenton Fire officials called in reinforcements from Chillicothe, Jamesport and other surrounding agencies to battle the raging fire that knocked out power to portions of city.
"You know rural fire departments just don’t have manpower to do a long duration fire," Briggs said.
It took more than six hours to get the fire under control.
By then it had consumed a hair salon, pawn shop, and done extensive damage to the Chamber of Commerce that houses that license office.
"It’s kind of the lifeblood of a community, so it’s a devastating impact," Briggs said.
"The Chamber of Commerce is real active here in this small town of Trenton and we have a very good director and members are very active," Doland said. "They’re getting ready for their annual banquet in a few weeks and awards ceremony, so hopefully all of us can pitch in and do anything that we can to help with that."
No one was injured in the fire.
As the investigation to what started the fire in the 100 year-old building is underway, the community plans to rally around the businesses to help them rise from the ashes.
"Every time you have something like this, they will," Dolan said. "Whether they rebuild or move what, but they will we’re a good community."
