SANFORD — A structure fire engulfed three buildings and shut down Bragg Street for hours Sunday afternoon, according to the Sanford Fire Department.
"We got the call at 12:18 p.m. (Sunday)," Sanford Fire Chief Wayne Barber said. "When our crews arrived on scene, there was heavy fire, heavy smoke coming from the back of the building all the way across the back. And it just went downhill from there."
Around 50 firefighters spent eight hours combating the blaze, which began at Robert's Cabinet & Tops at 417 Bragg St.
"It was an intense day," Barber said. "It is a total loss. We found out later that there was also a second business, Michael's Marvels, a comic book shop, and there were people living in the back part of that building. Needless to say, they lost all their belongings."
On The Herald's Facebook page, Kelli Robbins Douglas said the businesses and the residence belonged to her and her husband, Pastor Robbie Douglas of Bible Believers Baptist Church.
According to Barber, a large amount of wood, old wiring and heavy winds made it impossible for emergency personnel to extinguish the flames.
"We made two initial interior tacks but weren't making any progress, so we had to pull out," Barber said. "We had all the city units tied up, and we also asked for manpower from four of our volunteer departments. ... They sent manpower as well as some equipment to refill our tanks, our cascade systems on-site."
Barber added that one firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation, but that the injury wasn't serious.
The heavy smoke and strong winds necessitated shutting down the street to traffic, and first responders had Duke Energy turn off power to the surrounding area as well.
"It’s just a pile of rubble where those buildings were," Barber said. "We brought in a track hoe late [Sunday] afternoon to move the stuff around and could wet it down so we wouldn't have to put out hot spots here and there. We had to do that to get [it extinguished]."
As for what set off the blaze, Barber said that investigators were unlikely to discover a cause of the fire given the amount of destruction.
"The fire was at back of the building," Barber said. "The way that it burned, I don't know that we will ever be able to find anything in there. It was an old building with old wiring and a lot of combustible materials there. It could be a combination of anything."
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