Miss. Firefighter Injured in Downtown Blaze

TIM KALICH, Editor
The Greenwood Commonwealth
Reprinted with Permission

Greenwood firefighters, after a three-hour battle Thursday, have largely doused an inferno that destroyed nearly an entire downtown city block.

One firefighter was injured when an exterior brick wall at Perry’s Pawn Shop collapsed on him as he tried to scramble away.

Richard Brown, 25, was taken by ambulance to Greenwood Leflore Hospital.

“It looks like he got some scalp damage, some skull damage. We hope he’s going to be fine,” said Fire Chief Larry Griggs, who was helping man the hose when the wall came crashing down. Griggs suffered a laceration to the hand and another unidentified fireman took a glancing blow as they scampered away from the falling bricks.

An unidentified paramedic on the scene said that Brown had a laceration to the head but the injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

The fire began around 5 p.m. in Perry’s Pawn Shop, located on the corner of Main Street and Carrollton Avenue, and spread quickly through its sprawling four-building, two-story expanse.

Griggs said that openings that had been cut in the firewalls between the buildings over the years made it difficult for firefighters to contain the blaze.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Jermal Turner, a manager, said he had heard a report that some children had thrown a firecracker inside the pawn shop, but he said he could not confirm whether that report was true.

Turner said all of the store’s employees had evacuated safely and he did not think anyone was trapped inside the burning structures.

Shortly before 8 p.m., the blaze appeared to be contained. There were reports of possible propane tanks in one of the buildings, but there were no explosions.

Firefighters were trying to keep the building from spreading to the former, largely vacant, Midway Hotel. There was some fear that if the fire got that far, the flames could leap across to the next block.

Incoming Mayor Carolyn McAdams, who took the oath of office along with the City Council members about an hour before the fire was reported, was on the scene along with hundreds of other observers.

McAdams, who officially takes office next week, said she had not had a chance to discuss the fire with Griggs, but an investigation would be conducted into the cause of the blaze.

“I’m certainly saddened by the fact that we had a firefighter injured,” McAdams said.


Staff writers Charlie Smith and Andrea Hall contributed to this report. For full coverage, see Friday’s Commonwealth.