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Thursday afternoon an excavator began taking down the ruins of the Wednesday night fire in downtown Barnsdall. The fire began Wednesday evening around 7:30 on 5^th Street in an old hair salon then spread to the building next door, the former home of The Barnsdall Times. Both buildings were built in the 1930s.

Firefighters fought to prevent the fire from spreading to a third building to the right, built in the 1920s, a former speakeasy and current storage space owned by Barnsdall man Jack Kelly. Kelly’s used the building to house four collector cars, two Corvettes, a Camaro and a Mustang. Kelly and Fire Rescue personnel were able to get the vehicles out of the building.  

Barnsdall Mayor JD Cole said this morning that fire investigators are still trying to determine what started the fire and the three buildings are complete losses.

According to reports, the Barnsdall Fire Department ran out of water and called for help. Fire crews from Bartlesville, Skiatook, Ramona, Osage Hills and the Washington County Fire Departments responded all pitched in.  Mayor Cole stated the blaze was not extinguished until around midnight.

Washington County Emergency Manager Kary Cox said power had to be shut off because the fire threatened a main power line.  That caused the town's main water pump to lose power - meaning firefighters had to drive two and a half miles to truck water to the scene.

Cold temperatures caused water to freeze in the streets.  Firefighters said there were no injuries.