Fire destroys buildings on Osceola square

From the St. Clair County Courier

A fire of unknown origin destroyed several historic buildings Thursday, Jan. 20, on the Osceola square, according to the St. Clair County Courier.

As of Monday, Feb. 14, an employee of the Courier told the Sun the cause has still not been determined. The lady said a possible source is a furnace in one of the buildings but that has not been officially confirmed.

Just after 11 a.m. that morning. dispatch toned Osceola and Lowry City fire departments to a massive fire on the east side of the Osceola square. At first it was not known if any civilians were inside the buildings However, upon arriving at the scene, personnel quickly determined that there was no one inside.

Upon arrival, fire department personnel saw that the blaze had engulfed a large building used as a thrift store on the southeast corner of the square. On the second story level of the thrift store were apartments inhabited by two or three tenants.

The fire had spread through a common wall to the Osceola Barbershop. The barber was on a Springfield TV station this week saying he will rebuild.

Shortly thereafter, two more buildings, Bledsoe’ Plumbing & Heating and the vacant

Civic Theater, all sharing walls and located north of the thrift store, had also caught fire.

With the fire growing rapidly, neighboring fire departments were toned out:  El Dorado Springs, Appleton City, Roscoe, Iconium, Collins, Clinton, Deepwater, Humansville, Dunnegan, Weaubleau, Ebenezer, Pleasant Hope, Central Hickory County, Bolivar, Central Polk County, Caplinger Mills, Stockton, Preston, Prairie Grove, Fair Grove, Olympia and Brookline.

By the end of the day five structures had fallen. Many were pushed down to keep them from falling.

The departments reportedly used around 500,000 gallons of water transported from Osceola, Lowry City and other surrounding supplies in department tanker trucks trying not to deplete the water in the city’s water systems.

However, the large Golden Valley Metropolitan Health Clinic and Evans Drug located in a building with each other but separated from the other structures by a small alley-like parking lot were saved from the fire.

No injuries were reported.