More than a dozen fire crews from across southern Illinois joined with Carterville firefighters in battling a massive fire Monday night.
The blaze destroyed Corbell Telephone and Electronics, a business located on South Division Street for more than 40 years. The cause of the fire, which broke out shortly after 6:00pm Monday evening, is still unknown. No injuries were reported.
Residents gathered near the small community's historic downtown for several hours, watching as the fire burned through one building, and threatened others. Mayor Bill Mausey says older buildings make these fires harder to fight.
"These buildings, you know, are close to 100 years old. So you can imagine, you know, the timbers, how dry and brittle they are and the kindling they give to the fires."
Smoke could still be seen billowing from the buildings early this morning, as fire crews remained on the scene trying to keep the situation under control.
Mausey says as hard as it is to watch this, he's confident in his town's resilience.
"We'll recover. We'll rebuild. It's unfortunate times, and all. I feel sorry for the business and the property owners and all, but the city will do what they can to assist."
Some parts of the downtown area will remain closed, as investigators take a closer look at what may have sparked the fire. Ameren Illinois crews are working to restore power where they can to the downtown area.