Strip Mall Goes Up In Smoke

By Craig Day, The News On 6

BARTLESVILLE, OK -- Fire sweeps through a popular Green Country shopping center.  A part of Highway 75 was shutdown on Thursday morning while firefighters worked to put out the blaze.  The highway has reopened, but many business owners and employees are scrambling to find new places to set up shop.

It happened at the Washington Square Shopping Center along Highway 75 in Bartlesville, just south of Highway 60.

The good news is that everyone in the shopping center got out safely.  But, the bad news is most of the building is destroyed.

The fire started just as the business day was getting started at the Washington Square Shopping Center.  Charlotte Payne was working at a hair salon when the fire was discovered.

"Smoke was just boiling up out of the back and I walked back in and told the girls in the salon that we need to get out," said Charlotte Payne.

While fire crews worked to put out the fire, Highway 75 was shut down.  The flames spread quickly through the attic of the building.

"When I arrived on scene, we had two doors in the back of the building that had already burned through," said John Banks with the Bartlesville Fire Department.

The shopping center housed about a dozen shops and offices.

Business owners like realtor Kasie Hixon, who just opened her business at the center a month and a half ago, could only watch and hope for the best.

"Probably office out of home for a while until we can find another place to rent and just start getting supplies together and try to start over," said realtor Kasie Hixon.

While businesses work to find places to relocate, investigators with the Bartlesville Fire Department will determine how the fire started.

Several people who work in the center believe it started when a business turned on a furnace for the first time this fall.  No matter the cause, workers are full of shock and disbelief.

"I haven't been this close to it since it started and I'm going to cry I think.  It's bad," said Charlotte Payne.

Everyone got out of the building safely, but a Bartlesville firefighter was taken to the hospital with a broken hand.