Cause Under Investigation After Upstate South Carolina Fire Destroys Six Businesses

Fire investigators were working to determine the cause of a blaze that completely gutted seven buildings and six businesses in downtown Walhalla, South Carolina, a city of about 4,100 people in the northwest corner of the state.

The Main Street fire started about 3 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, and quickly spread to adjacent buildings, according to local news reports. The businesses damaged by the fire include Carolina Pizza Co., Middle of Main Antiques, Alexander’s Coffee House, and Tacqueria Los Arcos, as reported by The Journal in Seneca, WSPA TV, WLHR radio and other news outlets.

The site was once a five-and-dime department store that had been divided into separate businesses. Residents speculated that the fire may have been linked to a gas leak because flames kept leaping up even after fire crews doused them with water.

The stretch of Main Street is bookended by two insurance agencies, but neither was hit by the fire.

“It was a pretty big fire but we were not affected,” Stanley Nix, owner of a Nationwide Insurance agency near the east end of the street told Insurance Journal. He said none of the businesses burned in the blaze were clients of his agency.

Another agency, Upstate Insurance Agency, is a few blocks west on Main Street. Agency Owner Chris Lawrence said the office was not touched by the fire but one client was, and was covered for the loss.

“They’ll be taken care of. But nothing prepares you for the emotional roller coaster you go through after something like this,” Lawrence said Monday.

Fundraisers have been set up to help the impacted businesses, news reports said. A tattoo parlor, Dark Side in Gallery Tattoo Studio, across the street from the fire site, hosted a tattoo fundraiser to support victims, WSPA news reported. Hundreds of people have continued to gather to look at the devastation, Lawrence said.

City officials praised fire crews that responded quickly to the fire, according to social media posts. The mayor of Walhalla said the area will rebuild.