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A six-alarm fire destroyed the historic Holly Hotel and other buildings in downtown Holly Tuesday night. At least five firefighters experienced heat-related injuries after being called to the scene at about 4 p.m. The fire’s cause remains under investigation.

Wednesday afternoon firefighters were still monitoring for hot spots and looking for downed wires. The Battle Alley Arcade Antiques shop has been reduced to rubble. The Holly Hotel, Andy’s Place restaurant and the Holly Moose Lodge all sustained various levels of severe damage. Downtown was suffused with the smell of smoke, the whirr of generators and conversations of the curious who came to look and take photos.

Natalie Russell owns the antique shop Boomtown, 102 W. Maple St., and said she watched the fire from her shop a half block away.

She grew up playing inside the Arcade building. For a time, she had an antiques booth there.. She watched the Arcade come back to life in the 1970s after it had been empty for years. The owners filled it with antiques and architectural delights.

The Arcade held a wide variety of antiques, including clocks, metal signs and antique barber poles from Detroit, she said, as well as a beloved candy store. She remembers when the building held a small theater and sold tickets for a penny to see short films. Russell didn’t sleep Tuesday night and doesn’t expect to sleep well for at least a few days. She is avoiding going near the fire scene.

“The whole thing is a little too raw, right now,” she said, wiping away tears.

Christopher Lauinger, a cook at Andy’s Place restaurant for three years, was working when a coworker noticed smoke. They looked out the back door to see what was going on and saw flames shooting up the side of the Arcade building. He ran back inside, turned off equipment and grabbed a hose from the basement in hopes of keeping fire off the restaurant.

“It was going too hot, too fast. The wind was not on our side,” he said.

It’s the second devastating fire for Lauinger and his 14-year-old daughter, Hannah Wiering. She is credited with alerting people to an apartment fire in 2014 at their 7-unit apartment house on Maple Street. On Wednesday, the family sat across the street from Andy’s, waiting for word from the owner about the future.

Dave Coulter, Oakland County’s executive, was on the scene Wednesday talking to officials and business owners about how the county can help the village recover with tax credits and other programs. A disaster declaration may not be in the cards, he said. Several other county, state and federal lawmakers or their staff members were present as part of the assessment and response to the fire.

“We’re heartbroken,” Deborah Bigger, the village’s clerk and treasurer, told The Oakland Press. She and many others said it was a miracle no one was killed. Village officers are assessing the damage and next steps.

“I was a block away and I could feel the heat,” said Richard Kinnamon, executive director of Holly’s Chamber of Commerce. He also spent time shooing drivers away from areas where their cars might have crushed fire hoses as well as helping out-of-town visitors navigate away from the fire scene and out of town.

Normally, Kinnamon encourages people to visit the town. Not this week.

“People need to stay away for a few days. We’re still assessing,” Kinnamon told The OaklandPress on Wednesday. George Kullis, the chamber’s president, disagreed. He’d like to see people come into town and support the surviving businesses while being “very respectful” of the fire scene and the people affected by it.

The fire gave Holly Police Chief Jerry Narsh a chance to apply lessons he learned while chief of Lake Orion’s police department. In 2004, a fire at the Sagebrush Cantina fire devastated the community’s downtown. He worked with county historic preservation officials to find a way to re-use many of the bricks from the Cantina’s building to restore it. That may not be the case in Holly, in part because of the heat and damage to the bricks.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but appears to have started in the Arcade, next to the hotel.

At least 17 fire departments responded to the blaze, some from as far away as Troy, Kinnamon said. They mutual aid to Holly’s firefighters, police officers and public works employees, as did many volunteers. Nurse and several others said firefighters were heroic in their efforts to limit the fire’s spread.

Crews were on the scene for hours. On Wednesday, parts of Broad Street to Alley Street were closed, according to a statement from village officials. “We trust that you will be respectful of the workers and the open businesses. Please be safe and mindful around this area,” they said.

Late Tuesday, the village issued a statement that the extreme water use needed to fight the fire would cause the water to be brown temporarily. But there is no need to boil water.

The village also issued a statement about the impact of the fire:

“Holly is our home, and we are extremely grateful for our Village of Holly Fire Department and all of the surrounding areas Fire Departments that came to help in our time of need. We are forever blessed that no one was hurt today. Yet, we mourn the loss of our historic buildings and treasured businesses. We know our community will be strong and come together during this time.”

The fire happened around downtown Holly’s Battle Alley area. The area earned the nickname more than 100 years ago, when so many trains stopped in Holly that the saloons along Martha Street often had brawls. The wild reputation drew famed temperance activist Carrie Nation to Holly on Aug. 29, 1908. She and her anti-alcohol supporters beat patrons with umbrellas and Nation used her ax to smash whiskey bottles.

Village of Holly officials on Wednesday were talking with lawmakers and others about recovering from this fire. It’s the third significant fire in that area, Kinnamon said.

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