By By JESSICA SIEFF / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Emergency response teams were scrambling Friday afternoon, as a series of explosions that were heard in the basement of Sue's Hallmark at 312 E. Main St. escalated into a five alarm fire.
"Lights started flickering … and then everything went dark," said owner Sue Majerek, as she watched the fire rage even more out of control and crews began showering the building with water from above.
Just before 2 p.m. on Friday the Buchanan City Fire Department was positioned just outside of the Hallmark store as the thick scent of burning wires began to flood the air.
"Then we kept hearing explosions," Majerek said. She and her employees were unsure what the noises were that they were hearing. Majerek went next door, she said, to public works to inform them that something was going on in the building. On her way back, she said, she saw smoke.
Many downtown businesses – including the Four Flags Area Chamber of Commerce and the Niles Daily Star lost power for a short time. Many had just begun enjoying the festivities of the Arts in Motion event taking place downtown. Niles and other area fire departments and emergency personnel had been taking part in the processional for Vincent Dixon, a Niles City firefighter who died earlier this week.
The Buchanan City Fire Department and a Niles City Police Department unit were at the scene.
At that time a moderate amount of smoke could be seen coming from the rear of the building, through the back door entrance. An hour later, smoke could be seen pouring out through the building's rooftop.
And in what seemed like a matter of no time the scale of the fire increased -and a multitude of crews lined Main Street – to which all traffic had been blocked off. Firefighters still in their dress uniforms worn during the funeral for Dixon began suiting up. Units from Howard Township, Penn Township, Clay, Buchanan, Buchanan Township, Niles City and Niles Township along with a unit from the Southwest Michigan Community Ambulance Service were all on scene.
According to Gerry Kabelman, with St. Joseph Charter Township Fire 1, the fire jumped a firewall between Sue's Hallmark and the South Bend Tribune office just next door.
Firefighters gathered in the rear parking lot of the building and by 4:30 p.m. the smoke could be seen flooding out of the front door. Majerek knew little about the cause or the condition of her store. "I really don't know," she said. "They just haven't really said anything to me yet."
Majerek just recently celebrated her one-year anniversary as the owner of Sue's Hallmark, on June 22.
By 4:55 p.m. a call could be heard over scanners for five additional engine companies from Berrien County was ordered and an unknown number of firefighters were being treated for smoke inhalation.