Video of commercial fire in Enterprise, Alabama. Fire started in gym and spread to adjacent businesses.
At least five businesses have been destroyed or damaged in a fire reported just before 7:00 this morning on South Main Street in Enterprise, Alabama. First arriving crews found flames and heavy smoke at Lanny’s Gym. A man who lived in the back of the gym is, at last report, unaccounted for. The fire also left a number of families homeless who live in apartments in some of the buildings.
Here are excerpts from an article by Carole Brand in the Enterprise Ledger:
Occupants were inside the gym when the fire started, according to a witness. Herring said all but one man had been accounted for at 10 a.m. Thursday when flames and smoke spread from Lanny’s to Scorpion Karate Academy, Care South, Jada’s Restaurant and the apartments.
Jada’s owner Dale Hundley said her and some of her staff were inside of Jada’s at 5 a.m.
“We always come in early to prepare for lunch meals, but after a while, we heard popping and crackling sounds,” she said. “Then we smelled something like wire burning and that’s when we came out the front of the building and saw the flames at Lanny’s Gym. It was horrible.”
Hundley said as the employees exited the building, “firefighters told us to get out of the building. We knew that a couple was living in an upstairs apartment in the next building, so we went and got them and they had a lot of artist paintings, so we helped them get some out. It’s bad, but I had this bad feeling yesterday and this morning. I was afraid something would happen. I can’t explain it.”
