Marion firemen averted what could have been a major fire Thursday evening in a hallway between the North Market Kroger Store and the TVW Men’s Clothing Store. Fireman Jack Whiting said the fire would have been almost impossible to handle if the alarm had not been given five minutes earlier. Whiting and fireman Lonnie Dungey said the fire was discovered by Clarence Franklin, an employee of Bill’s Liquor Store across North Market Street from the hallway. Franklin noticed flames shooting out the doorway and called firemen at 7:30 pm. The firemen said the blaze started in a small storage room beneath the stairs from a short circuit in wiring. They said it probably smoldered for some time before it was discovered. The fire had spread up the hallway and into a storage room upstairs. Firemen were able to use the stairway despite the fire beneath it and put out the rapidly spreading blaze. They needed about an hour to completely extinguish it. Whiting said in another five minutes the stairs would have been burned away. It was the only entrance, he said. Smoke did slight damage to both the Kroger Store and the TVW store. Merchandise owned by Campbell’s Drug Store was stored in the back room in the upstairs, but it was not damaged, firemen said. No estimate was available on the damage to the hallway. The building is owned by Miss Georgia Heyde and her brother Phil Heyde.

(Extracted  from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us )