Fire damages downtown Oelwein buildings

Firefighters are investigating a fire that damaged several buildings in downtown Oelwein. The fire was reported around 10:30 p.m. Friday in the area of 17 West Charles Street.

Officials say the fire destroyed Kirby's, a vacuum store, and six apartment units located on the second level of the building.

Witnesses say that several people had to be rescued from the fire scene, everyone was able to escape and is accounted for.

Sarah Davis of Oelwein said her grandmother, sister and some friends lived in the upstairs apartments. Her brother, Mike Bushaw, also of Oelwein, said his grandmother, Dorothy Quario, has always lived in this building and that "it's her home." The two were thankful their grandmother was woken up and notified of the fire by her neighbors.

Heidi Cowart was inside of the apartment at the time of the fire. “Everybody in the apartments, we saw the smoke, I said ‘grab the birds and get out!',” said Cowart, who had lived in an apartment building at 17 West Charles Street in downtown Oelwein for only a few months before a major fire destroyed the building Friday night.

Cowart said she was able to get out of the burning building through the back stairs.  She said other people in the building's eight apartments above the ground floor used either the back or the front.

Donna Neumann took over ownership of West Charles Antiques in March, on the first floor of the building that burned late Friday. “I think I'm still in shock,” said Neumann.  “This was a hope and a dream to be part of the community and to give back to it.”

Yet as people spent Saturday in downtown Oelwein, breathing in the smoke-filled air and looking at the damage, it was also easy to think back to other major fires over the past decades.

“We've had a lot of major downtown fires,” said Fire Chief Wallace Rundle, as he brought up two major church fires, the Two Brothers Restaurant fire and the City Laundry Dry Cleaners fire of the early 1990s.  “I don't feel blessed with that.”

Rundle said on Saturday morning that fire investigators are still working to pinpoint a cause but that they have a good idea of where, inside the building, the fire started.

“This was a big one,” said Carol Paul, a longtime Oelwein resident and the wife of a city firefighter.  She said crews worked all throughout the night.  “Biggest one I remember being involved in.”  Cowart said she does have shelter and praised the landlord of the building for making sure the tenants are taken care of in these traumatic times.

As Neumann watched the smoke fill the area around the store she worked so hard to open, she was just relieved that everyone in the building was able to get out. “Dreams can be rebuilt.  Possessions can be replaced.  I'm just glad everybody got out.”

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