Cleanup Begins After Fire Burns Downtown Barnsdall Buildings

 Firefighters still are putting out lingering hotspots after fighting one of Barnsdall's biggest structure fires.

Thursday, February 19th 2015, 1:51 pm

By: Tess Maune

Cleanup Begins After Fire Burns Downtown Barnsdall Buildings

Cleanup has begun after a Wednesday evening fire destroyed buildings in downtown Barnsdall in Osage County.

Firefighters still are putting out lingering hotspots after fighting one of Barnsdall's biggest structure fires.

Osage SkyNews 6 flew overhead as crews worked frantically to keep the whole historical block from burning to the ground.

2/18/2015 Related Story: Fire Destroys Three Downtown Buildings In Barnsdall

At some point today, a backhoe will begin pulling two of the buildings down. Firefighters say it's a safety issue. There are concerns the brick facade on the front side of the building will come crumbling down.

Firefighters from about a half dozen stations were in Barnsdall to help get the flames under control.

There was trouble when crews cut the power because that also cut off the downtown water supply.

Water was brought in from several miles away, and two big troughs full of water still are sitting in front of the buildings on Thursday.

The fire started in an old hair salon the spread to the building next door.Fire investigators still are trying to determine what sparked the blaze.

The owner of the third building connected said the amazing work by the firefighters saved his 1920s building.

“My life's in there. Memories,” Jack Kelly said. “There's some real good stuff in there and some not so good.”

Kelley called the building his man cave, and he kept four collector cars inside -- two Corvettes, a Camaro and a Mustang.

Tonight at 5 and 6 p.m., we'll tell you what happened to those cars.