BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. — Firefighters said they were letting a fire in a huge cotton warehouse burn out on Monday.
The roof collapsed on the section of the warehouse at the Federal Compress on Elm Street in Blytheville and it was unsafe for firefighters to enter.
The smoldering fire left a smokey haze lingering over parts of the city.
“We thought it might have been one of our businesses here. And we saw all that,” said Bill Folwell.
Bill Folwell pointed to the smoldering fire a couple of blocks away from Larry’s Auto Sales where he worked.
Folwell was relieved to find out a huge fire was actually in the vacant part of cotton warehouse on Elm Street.
Firefighters and two nearby towns were faced with sixty-thousand square feet of flames Sunday night.
“We’d have been there for days if there had actually been cotton in there,” said Randall Woolsey, Blytheville Fire Marshal.
Woolsey said there were several warehouses in the complex slated for demolition.
None of them were being used for cotton storage any longer.
Woolsey said the roof collapsed before firefighters got on the fire scene and it was unsafe for fire crews to enter the building.
He told WREG “spot” fires were still burning beneath wood timbers and roofing, so finding the cause of the fire was going to take some time.
“When we get it completely out, we’ll go in there and look for evidence and try to rule whether this was intentional or accidental,” he said.
All the smoldering debris sent a cloud of smoke over parts of Blytheville that just won’t go away.
“They need to put it out or no one will be able to breathe,” said Charles Woods.
We’re told there’s nothing hazardous in the smoke, but it was annoying to Folwell who said he was trying to stay “downwind” of the fumes.
“The smoke’s been real bad for about the last hour. The wind’s blowing towards us now and it’s getting real bad,” he said.
Doyle Johnson owned LB’s Express, a walk-up diner on Main Street.
“The smoke is pretty rough,” said Johnson.
He rubbed his watering eyes and said customers have been running from the smoke too.
“It’s pretty rough on your breathing. And a lot of the customers was complaining about it,” he said.
There were no injuries reported in the fire.