Read and watch coverage from KETV-TV
The video at top is apparently a fairly early view of the fire. The picture below it was taken from essentially the same angle a few hours later. It seems to tell the story of what must have been a very frustrating and sad day in North Bend, Nebraska.
The fire department was alerted around 2:00 PM yesterday. The fire was still burning through the cold night. It is believed to have consumed one-eighth of the downtown commercial area.
The fire destroyed the beauty salon where it apparently started, the weekly newspaper’s office & historic archives, a massage parlor, a tanning salon, a welding shop, a bar and an apartment above the bar.
Here are excerpts from David Hendee’s article at Omaha.com on how the fire was discovered:
Nathan Arneal, publisher and editor of the North Bend Eagle, said he thought he smelled smoke after arriving at the office about 11 a.m. Monday.
“It smelled like something was burning, but we figured it was exhaust from the heavy equipment moving snow outside or that smell you get when the heater kicks on,” Arneal said. “We smelled that for a couple of hours.”
After going to lunch about 1:30 p.m., Arneal received a phone call from his mother, Mary Le Arneal, who said smoke was seen coming from the A Little Off the Top salon next door. Mary Le Arneal is the newspaper’s office manager and a reporter.
Nathan Arneal said he and his mother called the owners of the salon while an out-of-state visitor reported the fire to authorities.
“By that time, you could see smoke from the top of the buildings,” Nathan Arneal said.
Andy Bourek, the husband of salon operator Autumn Bourek, arrived and sprayed a fire extinguisher on flames burning through a small hole in the front of the building.The Arneals carried computers, cameras and expensive equipment out of the newspaper office.
“It looked like we would be OK,” Nathan Arneal said. “At that time, it didn’t seem like that big a deal. I wish we had carried more stuff out.”
