NORRIS CITY, IL (WSIL) � The State Fire Marshal is investigating an overnight fire at a Hardware store in Norris City, Illinois.
Clean-up is underway to pick up the pieces of what's left of Bond Lumber and Hardware.
"This is a store I shopped at all the time,� said long-time Norris City resident Kenneth Harrelson. “As a matter of fact, I had to buy some things there today. And, well, that's off.�
The Norris City Fire Department got the call of the fire around 9 Sunday night. When it was all said and done more than 12 other departments joined to provide mutual aid.
"That is one thing we benefit from around here,� said Captain Jerod McKenzie. “Being small communities, we have to have mutual aid."
Harrelson is a freelance photographer and has lived in Norris City since the 70s.
“As far as I know it’s been here longer than I have,� he said. It used to be owned by someone else and then they died here a couple of years ago and got new owners. But it’s been here as long as I can remember.
A big concern the fire department on scene had to deal with was several other builders nearby including a gas station.
“Our big priorities was the two structures around it, trying to protect them,� McKenzie explains. “We did a decent job at doing that. it just took a whole town. I mean, the whole town came out to help us last night.�
And now the town is left without one of its more important businesses. Harrelson says he hopes they’re able to rebuild as quickly as possible.
“Carmi is probably the closest or I think there's a lumber company over at Eldorado that's the same distance,� said Harrelson.
