(CITRONELLE, Ala. ) June 30 -- Three small business owners in Citronelle are surveying the damage after fire ripped through a strip mall. Firefighters from throughout northern Mobile County answered the call, including a crew from ThyssenKrupp Steel Mill. At times the flames were so intense that Highway 45 in the center of town was shut down to traffic.
Small business owner Jeanette Rowell says flower shop which was damaged means everything to her. "I had only been gone 10 or 15 minutes at the most," says Rowell. She was making a delivery when her flower shop went up in flames. Citronelle's fire chief says it took 50 firefighters nearly five hours to put out the blaze.
"The fire was tough it was in between two roofs once we got the fire knocked down it took a lot of over haul to get the remaining fire from trying to burn and flaring back up on us," Chief John Simison said. "Then trying to beat the 100 degree heat outside anyway so guys where getting pretty tired pretty quick."
Helium tanks and and other chemicals kept feeding the fire, two other businesses, a hair salon and a dry cleaners suffered smoke damage. So much gone in an instant for this small business owner. Rowell she says there's no giving up. "I'm not a quitter I don't give up so you know ill go on with it," says Rowell. The fire chief says the fire started inside the flower shop and it may have been electrical.
