An early morning fire ripped through Colonial Flowers at 311
High Street on Tuesday February 26, 2002. The fire destroyed both the
flower shop on the first floor and the home of the owners located on the
second floor above the store.
The owners Barry Smith and his mother, Marion had to walk down
a smoke filled staircase to escape the blaze in the middle of the
night. Barry & his mother were lucky enough to be awake when
the fire broke out which probably allowed them to escape without injury,
however Ewe, the family's dog perished in the back bedroom.
Barry led his 72-year-old mother by the hand through the smoke in the upstairs
apartment. As they started down the stairs to safety they were met
by Police Officer, Luther McDonald who helped them down the rest of the
stairs.
Chief Kurt Hess said "The exact cause of the fire
is still under investigation, but it isn't of suspicious origin,"
Kurt also mentioned that the fire started in the rear of the building on the
first floor,
A "trench" was cut into the roof of the Endless
Memories store which was located on the side of the building. The trench
area was 2 feet wide and extended the length of building roof allowing smoke
and heat to escape at the point of the trench rather than extend further into
the building and perhaps in to the next.
Firefighters contained the fire to one building. The
fire was prevented from spreading to Steelman Photo next door by flowing water
from the Steelman building and thereby "pushing back the fire to the
Colonial Flowers building," Hess said.
"The first alarm was turned in at 1:19 a.m., and we were
at the scene by 1:23 a.m.," Hess said. "We found heavy smoke
downstairs, upstairs and coming out of the front and back."
A second alarm was sounded at 1:38 a.m., South Vineland Fire Company helped at
the fire scene while Gouldtown Fire Company manned the firehouse. The
fire was declared under control at 6:22 a.m. Firefighters remained at the
scene until after noon.
43 firefighters from Millville, six from South Vineland and
six from Gouldtown contributed to the effort. Millville Fire Department
greatly appreciates the help given by these men, women, and sister Fire
Companies.
Photos below taken by South Vineland Fire Fighter Larry
Zukovsky
