May 11—GIBSON CITY — Fire investigators from the state fire marshal's office will try to determine what sparked a fire that heavily damaged three buildings in downtown Gibson City on Thursday.
Mayor Dan Dickey said apartment residents and businesses were in the buildings on the southeast corner of Ninth and Sangamon streets that were heavily damaged by flames.
The fire was reported at 5:38 a.m. at 113 E. Ninth St. and firefighters from several area fire departments turned out to help Gibson City firefighters.
Dickey said long-time Gibson City resident Bill Kruse was eating breakfast at the Blue Star Cafe at 5:35 a.m. when he saw "a bunch of smoke" and called 911.
The fire department was there in about 15 minutes, which Dickey called a pretty good response time for volunteers at that time of day.
Dickey said he was told there were five apartments on the second floor of the northernmost building on Ninth Street and that six people were rescued. None of them were injured but pets may have perished.
Dickey credited Gibson City businessman Kyle Obert, owner of K&K Coating, who had a ladder in his truck, with helping to rescue apartment residents through windows on the second floor of the burning building.
"He's kind of a hero. He was right on it," said Dickey, adding that Obert had co-workers helping him.
Dickey said there was a tattoo parlor and a boutique in the ground floor of that building.
The building in the middle, 132 N. Sangamon Ave., housed Rick Bowen's real estate agency, Central Illinois Disposal and Recycling and Travel by Beth. The mayor said it was destroyed by the flames and had caved in by afternoon.
The third building to the south housed the Blue Star Cafe, which was apparently open for business when the fire started, he said. He was unaware of the extent of damage to it.
The buildings together take up about a third of the block.
"It started in the north building. That was obvious this morning," Dickey said Thursday afternoon. "The cause, we don't know."
The mayor said he headed downtown about 6 a.m. upon hearing what was going on.
"The smoke was going north down main street. They did block off the entire downtown," he said.
Several businesses were closed for the day and the mayor asked residents to conserve on water usage.
"We have two water towers but when you have six or seven fire departments spraying water, it goes down quick," Dickey said.
Other departments that helped Gibson City were Paxton, Sibley, Elliott, Cornbelt from Mahomet, Sangamon Valley, Melvin-Roberts and Loda, he said. Heritage FS also supplied tankers with water.