FRANKLIN, Va. (WVEC) -- Police in the City of Franklin are asking people to avoid the downtown area following a major fire that broke out at a business on Thursday afternoon.
The fire broke out at Trinkets and Treasures on Main Street shortly before 2:30 p.m. Fire departments from Franklin and Hunterdale responded and battled the flames.
The Franklin Fire Department said everyone was able to get out of the building safely.
Multiple streets were blocked off while crews worked to put out the fire. Much of downtown was without power for most of the day, as they all share the same grid.
Photos sent from 13News Now viewers show flames shooting from the building with a large cloud of smoke rising to the sky. In a Facebook Live video, witness Raven Heuer said: "it kind of sounded like an explosion" when the smoke erupted, later describing it as a series of booms.
Witnesses said they have never seen anything like it, especially on the city’s busiest street.
"It was almost surreal, you couldn't even see down the street it was so intense," said Candice Clements.
Fortunately, fire crews were able to keep the fire from spreading to any other buildings, but Trinkets and Treasures was a total loss.
The business sold used furniture and other trinkets and treasure. There were a handful of employees inside at the time when they heard something coming from the mechanical closest.
"Opened up the door after they heard a couple of pops, and there was already fire that came out of the room. They got a couple fire extinguishers and tried to extinguish it themselves, couldn't do that, so they evacuated and called 911," said Tim Dunn with the city of Franklin.
Bradshaw owns a building directly across the street. He was worried there wouldn't be enough water.
"It looked like a garden hose compared to the fire. It was flaming up 50 feet when it broke through the roof,” said Bradshaw.
Thanks to quick work on the ground and from up above, as well as a stable firewall within the structure, the majority of the destruction, was contained.
"We could have lost downtown Franklin if it wasn't for our firefighters,” said Bradshaw.
The community feels especially bad for the owners of Trinkets and Treasures, it had only been open for less than a year.
"It's just sad because that's their whole life and dreams up in smoke," said Clements.
Firefighters are investigating the blaze as an electrical fire.
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