Fire investigators were working to determine the cause of a blaze that heavily damaged seven buildings and six businesses in downtown Walhalla, South Carolina, a city of about 4,100 people in the northwest corner of the state.
The Main Street fire started about 3 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, and quickly spread to adjacent buildings, according to local news reports. The businesses damaged by the fire include Carolina Pizza Co., Middle of Main Antiques, Alexander’s Coffee House, and Tacqueria Los Arcos, as reported by The Journal in Seneca, WSPA TV, WLHR radio and other news outlets.
The site was once a department store that had been divided into separate businesses.
The stretch of Main Street is bookended by two insurance agencies, but neither was hit by the fire.
“It was a pretty big fire but we were not affected,” Stanley Nix, owner of a Nationwide Insurance agency near the east end of the street told Insurance Journal. He said none of the businesses burned in the blaze were clients of his agency.
Another agency, Upstate Insurance Agency, is a few blocks west on Main Street. A person answering the office telephone Monday said the office was not touched by the flames, but at least one client may have been.
Fundraisers have been set up to help the impacted businesses, news reports said. A tattoo parlor, Dark Side in Gallery Tattoo Studio, across the street from the fire site, hosted a tattoo fundraiser to support victims, WSPA news reported.
City officials praised fire crews that responded quickly to the fire, according to social media posts. The mayor of Walhalla said the area will rebuild.
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