Hutchinson Fireman were called to the scene of a fire at the old Pegues building at 208 North Main shortly before noon Monday. There were never any real flames seen coming from the building, but some smoke could be seen coming from the top front left of the building and later as metal panels were removed from the front of the building, smoke also poured out from there.

Hutchinson Fire Inspector Tony Arpin explains that roofers were putting tar on the overhang and using a wood burner. Its used to spread the tar out into the cracks and apparently started a fire between the facia and the actual building. Fireman had to tear off the metal squares on the front of the building to figure out exactly where the fire was.

When they arrived, they could see smoke coming from the very top of the building and tore some of the metal panels off on the top left side of the front of the building, but then figured out that it was closer to the top of the overhang and began tearing those panels loose and found the source of the fire and was able to put it out fairly quickly once they found the location.

They did have the extension of one of the trucks up in case there was fire on the roof of the building, but luckily, there was none.

They did evacuate the entire block on the east side in the 200 block of North Main as a precaution. Arpin says the owners of Julian’s was in the building even though they are closed on Monday. The owner was doing some paperwork and told to leave her building. Both her business and the Petals Flower Shop to the south suffered some minor smoke damage. After the fire was out, fireman set up fans in the alley behind the buildings in an effort to air them out.

This was a double alarm fire because, when the call came in, they didn’t know how bad it might be considering its in the same general area of the fire a few years back. Eight trucks responded to the fire.

Police were called in to block streets from 2nd all the way to fourth street to keep traffic out of the area in one of the busiest times of the day in downtown Hutchinson.

No one was injured as a result of the fire which again was more smoke then flames in the old structure. No damage estimate was available.