Renewed respect for what a fire can do

One of the first things I noticed when I approached what used to be the Outpost Bar and Turf Liquor store in Winton on Tuesday afternoon was a pile of blackened timbers, jutting into the air every which way, rooftop air conditioners and display racks in front of the store. The debris was stacked about 6 feet high and covered quite a bit of territory. Cleaning this one up won't be an easy task.

Only a little bit of the exterior liquor store walls remained and the interior was gutted, with daylight showing through where the ceiling had collapsed. Each fire plays out differently, of course, but the devastation was complete and staggering in this case. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries. Nothing was left of either the bar or the liquor store. A beauty shop and a clothing store next door also suffered mightily in the 2 a.m. fire, but the its fury definitely was centered on the two corner establishments, longtime fixtures in Winton. Damage estimates have been placed at $2 million--and it'll be every bit of that, I'm guessing. Countless memories and years of work quickly went up in smoke. Any rebuilding will mean starting from scratch. The smell of smoke hung heavy in the air, even 13 hours after the fire.
Seeing the havoc that such an inferno wreaked should give everyone a very healthy respect for the power - and danger- inherent in fire.