An early morning blaze destroyed the Shawnee Library System building today causing an estimated $340,000 damage to the building and its contents. The library system was being temporarily housed in the Ambassador Place. The building is located on Route 37 about one mile north of Marion. The building, a block structure owned by Wally Thurmond, was mostly collapsed before the Marion Fire Department could arrive at the scene at about 6:30 am today. The library, which served area libraries with books which could not be purchased by each library, contained about 25,000 volumes at the time of the fire. James Ubel, director of the library, said the average cost of a book was $7 making a total of $175,000 lost in books. An additional $40,000 in office equipment for the operation was lost. Thurmond said at the scene of the fire today the building was valued at $125,000. He said the building was insured. The building was being rented to the library organization for $600 per month. Marion fire chief Lonnie Dungey said cause of the fire had not been determined. “It could have been several things,” Dungey said. “It could have been the wiring, the heat or started by someone breaking into the building.” Ubel said the building was heated by two large gas heaters which were located in the library portion of the 6,600 square feet building. None of the library’s records or files was saved from the extensive heat which twisted steel beams like pieces of thin metal. The Marion Fire Department centered its interests on saving the Ambassador House which is located about 30 feet east of the Ambassador Place. The firemen sprayed water on the rear of the restaurant and there was no damage reported to the building. The library, which employed 15, opened it doors at its temporary location July 5 to serve public libraries in 18 Southern Illinois counties. The library had planned to be located in Marion for 14 months prior to locating at its permanent building near Carterville. The permanent library will be located on a six acre site and the building is expected to cost more than $300,000. Ubel said today he did not know where the library would move but he did mention two locations in Johnston City which were considered before coming to Marion. A total of about 10,000 books is presently loaned to other libraries in Southern Illinois and Ubel said the books would be used to start another library. “The fire cost us about two years of our plans for the operation of the library,” explained Ubel. “I don’t know what the board will decide to do about replacing the books, but I do know we will continue.” The United Parcel Service used the building as a warehouse after the Thurmond Monument Co. was sold. Thurmond said he had no future plans as yet concerning reconstruction of the building.

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