Investigators look for cause of fire

Investigators are looking for the cause of a Christmas Day fire that ripped through a portion of Russellville’s downtown district, destroying two old buildings that were currently being used as storage warehouses.

Witnesses at the scene of the blaze Saturday said the two buildings located on Lawrence Street once housed Spry Funeral Home and the Franklin County Times.

Russellville Fire Chief Joe Mansell said Tuesday that investigators were just beginning to look into the fire’s origin.

“We have just reached the point where investigators can get in and safely look around,” Mansell said.

“The area we are looking in is a basement so the walls had to be torn down so there would be no danger of them collapsing on anyone.”

At least one of the buildings was currently being used by D&D Building Supply to store doors, windows and roofing materials among other things.

Fire crews from Russellville, Muscle Shoals, Florence, Tharptown, Belgreen, East Franklin and Frankfort were successful in keeping the fire out of the storefront used by D&D.

The fire began sometime around 3:30 p.m. Saturday and by 4 p.m. flames could be seen rising high into the sky. Fire Marshal Bobby Malone said the fire was fully engulfed by that point.

About 4:45 p.m. Saturday the east side wall of the former Spry Funeral Home building collapsed, but no one was injured.

“We lost two buildings, but it could have been worse,” Mansell said.

“We could have lost this entire block, but the other departments from the county and Florence and Muscle Shoals came in and helped our guys get it under control. All the departments came together and kept this from being much worse and we really appreciate all of them for their help.”

Mansell said investigators are looking into the fire the same way they would any other fire.

“We just want to secure the area and make sure it’s safe so the investigators can go in and do their job,” he said.

“We want to be able to tell the owners what caused the fire.”