Fire ravages downtown Vincennes

VINCENNES, Ind. (WTHI) - An overnight fire strikes in the heart of downtown Vincennes, the blaze devastated nearly half a block of historical buildings and businesses.

"I mean it's gone, I wish it never happened, pray to God something like this doesn't happen again," Jeremy Davis, a man who watched the fire throughout the night said.

Flames ripped through the roof of the Gimbles corner in Vincennes Saturday night.

"The building the walls just caved in, the guide wires popped and made a big boom and that's when the entire Gimbles building caught on fire,” Billy Gentry who arrived as the fire began said.

The blaze took over one building and kept going, threatening other buildings in its path.

"Real close I mean, (Vincennes is) it’s so small, it could get all the buildings," Davis would say later of the fire.

The Vincennes Fire Department said several different townships from across the Wabash Valley teamed together to contain the fire, but it took firefighters nearly three hours to get the blaze under control.

They also said the blaze was too hot to send firefighters into the buildings. So they used a technique called “Surround and drown” to control the blaze. All aerial fire department apparatuses were set up outside the collapse zone and poured nearly one million gallons of water into the burning block to subdue the fire. But, not before taking a piece of history with it.

"The buildings that have been involved other than the tower bridge building, they are probably going to have to be demolished,” Vincennes assistant fire Chief David Halter said.

A southern Indiana town that will never look the same.