Hobby Lobby evacuated after snagged power line starts small fire

When Hobby Lobby manager Dave Vaughn heard some slight rumblings from the roof, the first thing he thought was that a storm had moved in. Then came some accompanying pops and crackles and he figured it must have been some early Fourth of July fireworks.

Then some of the lights went out in the Cape Girardeau store.

He went out the back door to check some power lines, only to be greeted by billowing smoke coming from a small fire on the roof of the crafts and hobbies material store.

"It wasn't like the fire was engulfing anything," Vaughn said. "It wasn't like it was a huge fire. But I saw that it was along the ledge. So I told the employees to get everybody out."

The fire, which started around 9:30 a.m., caused Vaughn to have the 50 or so customers and employees evacuate the store at 207 S. Kingshighway and close for four hours Friday. The store reopened about 2 p.m., and no one was hurt.

The fire started when a CWI of Missouri waste-hauling truck was either picking up or dropping off a Dumpster behind the store, said Mark Hasheider, assistant fire chief for the Cape Girardeau Fire Department. The truck hooked a power line that made contact with the building.

The wires electrified the gutters and ignited the roofing material, mainly tar paper, Hasheider said.

"But the fire was minimal," he said. "We contained the fire until AmerenUE showed up to disconnect the power lines."

Firefighters worked for nearly an hour, mainly checking for hot spots on the roof. They had to pull up roofing material in several places along the back edge of the roof, he said.

Hasheider said the smoke damage inside the building was minimal and that the fire was basically contained to its area of origin.

Brian White, the manager of CWI of Missouri in Jackson, said he couldn't give out details about the driver, except to say he had been working for the company for about three years.

"I've got the driver here now, and we're going over our report," White said. "All we know is that no one was hurt, and that's the one bit of good news, that no one was hurt."

After the store reopened, Vaughn said the roof would have to be repaired, but that it would not cause the store to close.

smoyers@semissourian.com

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