By Dave Hughes
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
PARIS, Ark. — The two largest blazes Chief John Paul Wells has dealt with in his nearly two decades with the town’s fire department here have been downtown theaters.
In the latest blaze, Wells led a small army of firefighters from the city and surrounding jurisdictions to extinguish flames that destroyed the Main Street Cinema on Jan. 2.
That fire came four years after the Logan Theater, also on the square, burned.
The Main Street Cinema fire broke out about 5 p.m., and, Wells said, he got the call about five minutes later. When he arrived, he said, he saw black smoke rolling from the rear of the building, but the flames had not yet burned through the roof.
The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined, Wells said, but he believes it started in the northeast corner of the building.
Wells said he called in Arkansas State Police to investigate the fire, which is routine for such a large blaze.
Owner Randy Trusty had the theater insured with Columbia Insurance. Insurance agent Larry Stewart of Fort Smith said Friday that the city of Paris requested the investigation in conjunction with the insurance company’s inquiry. The investigative team is scheduled to begin its probe next week, he said.
Stewart wouldn’t comment further Friday on the investigation but said Trusty told him that he had opened the theater as a service to the community.
“He was raised in this town, and he wanted to give something back to the people of the community,” Stewart said.
Trusty declined comment, referring inquiries to Stewart.
The theater was in the middle of the block on the north side of the town square and the fire threatened other structures around it, including the Castle Graphic printing company two buildings west.
Wells said he was concerned about Castle Graphic because the western-blowing wind could have caught the neighboring business on fire as well. He decided to call for help shortly after arriving on the scene. Eight volunteer fire departments from areas surrounding Paris responded.
Wells and Paris Mayor Bill Elsken said they believed the help from other departments prevented the fire from spreading beyond the theater.
“It could have wiped out the whole block, but their work helped contain the fire,” Elsken said.
Firefighters remained on the scene until about 3:30 a.m. Jan. 3, Wells said. Flareups drew the fire department back to the theater two or three times.
Elsken said he has lived in Paris all his life and has seen three theaters burn down, the first being the Wiggins Theater in the 1940s, he said. Each one has been a loss to the community, he said.
“In a small community, having a theater is a symbol of pride because a lot of communities don’t have one,” he said.
Despite firefighters’ efforts, the fire caused smoke and heat damage to Castle Graphic, ruining the business’ inventory of shirts and caps, owner Glenn Gilbreath said. He said his insurance agent hadn’t determined the value of his loss as of last week.
Gilbreath said he’s owned the business about 10 years and bought the building between his business and the theater three years ago to house his Razorback helmet car, which was damaged when the fire rekindled Jan. 3. He said the car was being repaired and he planned to reopen his shop Thursday.
“It’s all good,” he said. “Nobody got hurt.” The building to the east had been until recently the historical society’s Historic Preservation Center. But the society recently moved out of the building when it was put up for sale, said Linda Hixson, Paris Chamber of Commerce executive director.
Hixson said she was heartbroken over the loss of the theater not only because it was a community asset but also because it was another blow to a downtown trying to recover from hard economic times. She said several downtown businesses have folded because they couldn’t stay afloat.
“It’s devastating to lose any business for any reason, whether it’s due to economics or fire,” she said. “It’s very upsetting.” What made the loss of the Main Street Cinema more upsetting, she said, was that a four-block area of downtown Paris was designated last spring as the Paris Commercial Historic District and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
But, she said, she was confident that stores will reopen when the economy improves and that, if Trusty does not rebuild, some other business will move into that space.
“It will not be the death of the square in Paris,” Hixson said.
Copyright 2010 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.