Wisner Fire Destroys Downtown Businesses
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An early morning blaze in a small Nebraska town had fire crews fighting flames into the wee hours and has left the town with two less businesses.
The fire destroyed two buildings on Wisner, Nebraska's main street including a veterinary supply store, a Christian bookstore, and a dry cleaning drop-off service housed in the same building as the book store.
The Wisner fire department responded to the call that came in at 12:21 a.m. Friday morning.
Police say a caller claimed that they saw the fire start around a Christmas tree that was in the front window of the bookstore, though the fire marshal was not able to confirm.
Wisner, Beemer, and West Point crews put the fire out within a couple hours, but the devastation is still a shock to the bookstore's co-owner.
"I just couldn't believe how vast it was. I thought 'well, maybe we had a little fire and it hurt something' but I just had no idea that it was just completely… gutted the building" said Bob Colligan, co-owner of the bookstore.
Colligan and his wife, Marlene, just celebrated 25 years in business with the Son Shine Shoppe. They also operated the veterinary supply next store.
Colligan says not only is it a blow that he lost up to $30,000 in merchandise, the town has also lost two important main street businesses.
"We didn't know what would possibly cause it, and, like I said, it's kind of been our baby for 25 years. There isn't a lot of businesses in a small town like ours, but it was a place for us to be at our age," said Colligan.
Both buildings are considered total losses, with damage worth $250,000. The fire marshal says the cause appears accidental but is undetermined.
Colligan says it's just lucky no one was hurt in the fire, saying an apartment above the veterinary supply store was just vacated 10 days ago.
Officials say the owners of the buildings did have insurance, though Colligan and his wife did not have their merchandise insured.
