Home, store damaged in fires

Two fires four days apart last week left a Eureka Springs home likely a total loss and damaged the Route 62 General Store.

The Eureka Springs Fire Department responded to the store at 2080 E. Van Buren on Sunday, Nov. 1, then spent about 7½ hours battling a blaze at 1 Florence St. on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Fire Chief Gary Inman said the house fire apparently had been burning for some time before bystanders noticed it that afternoon. Part of the split-level home was already collapsing when firefighters arrived.

The department responded with two engines and a support truck.

The location of the home, the only house on Florence Street just off East Mountain Drive, prevented firefighters from bringing in a ladder truck, Inman said. Fire spread upstairs before firefighters stopped it. The area underneath sustained smoke and water damage but no fire damage, he said.

The homeowners were on vacation.

“Obviously they are not able to occupy that space anytime soon,” Inman said. “That’s going to probably be a total loss.”

Holiday Island and Berryville firefighters assisted Eureka Springs crews.

“It was an extensive fire, a lot of damage, and the problem was accessing some of it where the fire was burning,” Inman said.

Crews had to let areas cool and watch for flareups to locate fire they could not reach, he said. Firefighters returned about 2 a.m. after one spot flared up.

The cause remains under investigation. Inman said investigators must allow the debris to cool and obtain the owners’ permission before returning to the residence.

Although narrow roads and steep terrain often complicate firefighting in Eureka Springs, Inman said the home’s secluded location presented another challenge: There were no close neighbors to spot the fire.

“When we were notified there was a fire, it actually came in originally as a brush fire,” he said. “Then, before we ever got out of the station, they came back and said they had a second call on it and it was actually a structure fire.”

The initial report did not affect the response, Inman said, because the department sends essentially the same equipment to all fires inside the city.

Four days earlier, firefighters spent nearly three hours at Route 62 General Store after a fire began about 5:30 p.m. in downstairs living quarters.

“We found what we call a single-room and contents fire. It was confined to one room, and they stopped it,” Inman said.

The fire did not spread to the upstairs store and restaurant, although smoke caused damage throughout the building. Its cause also remains under investigation.

“There was some smoke damage throughout, which is unavoidable, but … a good fire restoration company should be able to come in there and mitigate that and hopefully that’ll have them kind of back on their feet,” Inman said.

Firefighters monitored the store throughout the night, as they did the Florence Street home.

“I personally was up both nights all night long,” Inman said. “A structure fire is very labor-intensive and that intensity doesn’t just go away just because the fire’s over, because then those trucks have to be ready for the next call.”