Subway destroyed by fire
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Subway store in Chester suffered significant damage from an early afternoon fire on Monday, July 5, causing it to be deemed a total loss.
According to Chester Fire Department 1st Captain Marty Bert a utility pole located behind the store was rotted at the bottom of the pole and was set to be replaced as early as today. Due to the pole being rotted it dropped the wires 6 to 8 feet below the normal height, which caused a semi-truck to clip the wires as he drove through the alley between Subway and the Western Egyptian Thrift Store.
"The driver did not pull the pole down; the wires were hanging lower than normal," said Bert. "As the driver of the semi drove through the alley his truck caught a NewWave cable wire and that cable hooked into other wires on the pole which in turn pulled the master loop off the side of the Subway building. Once that happened the meter loop hit the ground and shorted out. That is what we believe started the fire. When we arrived on the scene there was a lot of smoke coming from the building," he added.
"Employees of Subway stated the lights flashed and they heard a popping sound. They noticed smoke on the outside of the building, then smoke inside the building, and they exited the store," said Fire Chief Mike Lochhead.
"The power lines were on the semi-truck and the driver had to stay in the vehicle quite a length of time," said Lochhead. "Once we arrived on the scene we had the fire out within an hour and a half. We were on site for over 3 hours. When we left the scene there was no smoke showing. However, we received a call from Illinois Power at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, stating that they saw smoke, so the fire department went out and was on site for an hour and half handling the situation," he added.
Lochhead went on to add that he doesn't know all the particulars and that a state fire marshall investigator will be on scene today.
When the The Randolph?County Herald Tribune contacted Subway owner Eric Huggins, he stated he has plans to re-open Subway within Chester but at this time the location is unknown.
Other fire departments assisting at the scene were Ellis Grove, Steeleville and Perryville, MO.
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