Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 350, Greencastle, Putnam County, 25 September 1985 — Page 5
Penney's, Shuee stores virtually undamaged
By ERIC BERNSEE Banner-Graphic Managing Editor Miraculously, J.C. Penney’s and Shuee and Sons Appliance Store-each located within 50 yards of the tragic fire that gutted Brewer’s Relaxer Shop on the west side of the square-were spared Tuesday afternoon. PENNEY’S MANAGER Wayne Riley said his corner business was “virtually untouched,” despite tense moments Tuesday afternoon. “We have a little glass to clean up and some minor water damage where a window broke on the third floor and there are a couple drips on the main floor where the water trickled down,” Riley told the Ban-ner-Graphic. “Other than that, our building and contents were virtually untouched.” Riley said amazingly enough, there is no water in the basement of the Penney’s store and only the telltale hint of smoke when you first go in the door. “After that,” he said, “you can’t even smell any odor,” he said. RILEY ANTICIPATES reopening as soon as power is restored to the west side of the square. “At the very earliest that would be tomorrow (Thursday) morning. It may even be noon before we get things straightened out.” Riley wasn’t so nearly optimistic Tuesday afternoon. At one point it appeared as though much of the west side of the square might go up in flames. “I can’t compliment the fire department enough,” Riley said. “We were amazed when we went back in last night and found there was virtually no damage.” The Penney’s manager said the tragic death of Beth Brewer, the 21-year-old manager of Brewer’s Relaxer Shop, is a “big loss to the community and her family.” “WE FEEL REAL BAD for the Brewer family,” he said. “It’s a loss that will be felt by all of us.” Robert Shuee of Shuee and Son’s was also astounded to go back into his business and find no smoke odor, no fire damage and only a small puddle of water in the basement. He, too, credited the firemen with doing a “great job of containing the fire.”
Shuee's employee saw smoke
Betty Bruner was on her way to lunch Tuesday noon when she kept a date with destiny. “It was probably three minutes after 12,” the Shuee and Son Appliance Store clerk told the Banner-Graphic. “I had four letters to mail and I usually stick them in the box right there (in front of the Horizon Business Center). I always look in the windows and see who’s there because we always wave at each other,” she said of workers on the west side of the square. THIS TIME, HOWEVER, things were different. “I looked at that window (of Brewer’s Relaxer Shop) and you know the way when the sun hits the dew in the morning it looks like steam? That’s what was coming from the front of the building. I thought to myself, ‘The sun’s been up for hours.’” Curiosity drew Betty Bruner closer for a better look. What she saw was fire in the southwest corner of the store, from floor to ceiling. “That’s where Beth’s (Beth Brewer’s) desk was,” Mrs. Bruner said. “For a moment, I just stood there dumb-
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Banner-Graphic photos by Bob Frazier, Barbara Carhart and Ed Tilley
Early Tuesday afternoon, Shuee admitted he had doubts about the appliance business surviving the blaze. Once power is restored to the west side of the square, it will be business as usual at Shuee’s, he said. MEANWHILE, AVCO Financial Services has relocated to a third-floor office once occupied by the township trustee in the First Citizens Bank Building. Manager Tim Williams said he will set up shop there until a permanent location can be found. The office used previously by AVCO will not be reoccupied by any business until the structure is rebuilt, Williams said. Williams and co-worker Ann DeVylder were first alerted to the scene unfolding next door when he heard what sounded like pounding on the wall about noon Tuesday. “It sounded like some was ripping up the floor.” Going in the back to check, Williams discovered smoke in the bathroom of AVCO, which is separated from Brewer’s only by a partition. He ran to Brewer’s door, only to find the store “totally engulfed in smoke.” "WHEN I GOT TO the door, I could just barely see the bottom of the first chair,” Williams told the Banner-Graphic. Firemen later told Williams the noise he heard might have been the boards cracking and snapping with the fire and heat. “I still for the life of me don’t know what it was,” Williams said, adding that he got no response when he knocked on the adjoining wall.
founded. Then I ran back in Shuee’s and yelled for Paul (Lewandowski) to call the fire department.” She and fellow Shuee’s worker Jeff Barker ran back outside, but the Brewer store was filled with smoke by that time. THEY DIDN’T SEE anyone in the store. And since it was lunchtime, thought perhaps Miss Brewer had left for something to eat. “I just wonder if I’d opened the door and yelled to her...l don’t know,” Mrs. Bruner said, admitting she “saw that fire all night long.” The Shuee’s employee recalled Avco manager Tim Williams’ remarks about hearing what sounded like a pounding noise on the adjoining wall. “We hear noises all the time,” Mrs. Bruner said, “but from now on, if we hear something, believe me, we’re going to find out about it.” *** Sandy Williams, 511 S. Indiana St., Greencastle, was looking out the window of Phillips Electric on North Jackson
The west side of the square before and after Tuesday's tragic Greencastle fire
“The sad thing is, you just stand there and find out just how frail vou really are.”
Carolyn Thomas, whose Hen House Beauty Shop is located just above Brewer’s Relaxer Shop, was returning from a two-day vacation with her husband, Jimmie, on Tuesday when she learned of the fire that claimed 21-year-old Beth Anne Brewer’s life. “MY HUSBAND AND I had taken Monday and Tuesday off as vacation days,” she related Wednesday morning from the couple’s 407 Shadowlawn, Greencastle, home. “We always keep our camper down at our daughter’s house in Cloverdale and that’s where we stopped. ’ ’ Daughter Patty Patten, whose husband, Kenny, is a Cloverdale volunteer fireman, questioned her mother on the exact location of the shop. “I told her it was right above Brewer’s and she told me that Brewer’s was on fire,” Mrs. Thomas recalled. “By the time we got there (to the store’s location), we saw that Shuee’s roof was on fire,” Mrs. Thomas said. “Our building was just smoking because by then, the worse of the damage had been done.” MRS. THOMAS EXPLAINED the Hen House beauty salon was located in a mezzanine area between the first and second floor of the Brewer Relaxer Shop. “We’re sort of between the balcony area,” she said. “You get to our shop by using the stairs by Avco (Finance).” Mrs. Thomas said she and her husband had not been to downtown Greencastle as of Wednesday morning to survey the damage. “They wouldn’t let us near the building last night,” she said, referring to firemen and police officers’ concern for safety. “They wouldn’t even let me get the mail that’s in the box on the first floor. ” At this point, Mrs. Thomas is uncertain if and where she will relocate the shop, but expressed appreciation to the many customers who called and expressed concern. STILL, SHE REALIZES the loss of life during the tragic fire far outweighs her own circumstances. “We lost a business, but (the Brewers) lost a daughter,” Mrs Thomas said. “That makes my problem seem so small.”
Street, awaiting word of an order she’d made. IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER noon when Mrs. Williams glanced south toward the square and saw “what looked like the windows (of Brewer’s Relaxer Shop) blow out and smoke just come pouring out of the building. “That smoke just gushed out,” Mrs. Williams told the Banner-Graphic, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” The Greencastle woman went dashing up Jackson Street and saw Tim Williams of Avco come running out of the front of the building. About that time fire trucks and other emergency equipment began to descend upon the west side of the square. And Sandy Williams became an impromptu volunteer. “THERE WERE PEOPLE and trucks everywhere,” she said, adding that traffic was beginning to back up. “One of the firemen said, ‘Why don’t you get these cars out of here.’” Mrs. Williams did, helping direct traffic from in front of the Goodwill Store for 90 minutes.
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KENGRUNDLOCK Being treated by OL
Rear wall of old opera house cracks as smoke billows
Merchants to work to acquire equipment
By BECKY IGO Banner-Graphic Area News Editor Ed Overshiner, manager of the Horizon Business Center, which lies directly next door to Brewer’s Relaxer Shop, expressed Wednesday morning the frustration of a city attempting to fight a major fire without proper equipment. “I commend all the firemen because they did a whale of a job,” Overshiner began, “but it’s a shame when you have to depend upon equipment 30 miles away.” OVERSHINER REFERRED to the snorkel truck summoned by Greencastle firemen, when their own hoses could not reach the third-floor level of Brewer’s Relaxer Shop during the Tuesday noon blaze. “We (Greencastle merchants) had a verbal meeting today and we’re going to try to get some kind of a drive going to acquire some equipment. It’s a shame when something like this has to happen for people to see how really lax we are. “If it can happen in town today, it can happen here again,” Overshiner commented. “It’s a shame to lose buildings and we wouldn’t have lost them, if we had the right equipment.” Overshiner said it was exceptionally tragic due to the loss of life, referring to the death of Beth Brewer, manager of her father’s Brewer’s Relaxer Shop. He also recalled events when he realized Tuesday the building was on fire. “WE WERE ALL IN the store working,” Overshiner said of himself and his staff. “Some guy came through the door and said there was smoke over in the next building.” Overshiner left the Horizon Business Center and went to the front door of the Brewer’s business. “I pushed on the front door to see if it was locked or not,” he recalled. “When the door opened, I knew Beth was still in there. You couldn’t even see in the windows. The smoke was so black and thick it just rolled out of there. You couldn’t even breathe it was so toxic.” By that time, Overshiner noted Bob Shuee and his employees were out of their store and again people tried to go in the Brewer’s store to find Miss Brewer. “You just couldn’t get in there,” Overshiner said. “You couldn’t even see.” By that time, volunteer firemen Ken Grundlock arrived at the scene. Overshiner described Grundlock’s rescue attempt of Miss Brewer as heroic. “I SAW KENNY GO IN,” Overshiner said. “I give him 100 per cent credit (in trying to save Miss Brewer). He did all he could do. When he came kit of the building, he fell down on the ground and no one came to help him.
Wednesday, Sept. 25,1985, The Putnam County Banner Graphic
“I didn’t know whether to help him or not,” Overshiner said, indicating people were temporarily dazed by the commotion. “I saw Kenny’s jacket had just melted off him and the tank on his back was sizzling. He was hot.” Finally, another firemen came over to Grundlock to remove the tank, Overshiner related. “Ken took his mask off and his ears were burned and so was his face. “One guy tried to go in before him,” Overshiner said, “but he just gave up. They started putting water in through the front door and that’s when Kenny went in. He came out and said he couldn’t find anyone. I don’t know long he was in there...maybe 10 or 15 minutes. “BUT, AS FAR AS I’M concerned, he did everything he could,” Overshiner said of Grundlock. “He gave all the effort and was the only one to try to do something.” In assessing the damage at his Horizon Business Center Wednesday morning, Overshiner said, “As far as I am concerned, we’re in good shape. We do have some water and smoke damage. We are going to start clearing some things up, and moving some things out today to try to save what we can. “Essentially, I feel someone was really watching over us,” Overshiner continued. “I had some cardboard boxes in the back that weren’t even scorched.” However, Overshiner expects to relocate his business in Greencastle because it appears the shell of the Brewer Relaxer’s Shop may be destined for demolition. “THAT’S WHAT THEY told me last night,” he said, “that it was going to come down today.” Overshiner expressed his gratitude to fellow Greencastle merchants, who opened their doors to him in case materials are in need of being stored. “I am overwhelmed by the response I have gotten from the merchants,” he said. “Tucker Gray (manager of Ace Hardware) offered me storage space in his own store,” he related. “Steve Jones sent me down one of his employees to help clean the place up,” Overshiner said of Neil McCammack of the Wash and Fill. “It’s nice to know there are people around to help.” STILL, OVERSHINER could not get Tuesday’s tragedy off his mind. “You know, I have thought all night what I could have done differently,” he said. “Maybe there was something else I could have done to help. “But there was nothing we could do,” Overshiner determined. “It’s really sad, when the only thing you can do is stand and watch it burn down.”
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