Jacob Bembry: Greene Publishing, Inc.
The evening of April 18, 1997 was supposed to have been a night of celebration, not of disaster and near tragedy. There were not supposed to have been firefighters from near and far counties who had to come fight what our local heroes valiantly tried to fight themselves. It was not supposed to have ended with people in
Madison Sporting Goods is aflame as the fire leaps out in an attempt to reach another building. Firemen from several departments steadily pour water on the raging inferno.
shock and business owners in tears over what they had lost as their hopes and dreams went up in flames along the 200 block of South Range Street.
It was a festive night as hundreds of people had converged in downtown Madison for the start of Down Home Days and the much-anticipated performance by Becky’s Dance Steps Studio, and then the street dance.
People were dancing the night away when Madison Police Chief Rick Davis spotted a group of juveniles, from ages 10 to 18, smoking in the alley which separated Madison Sporting Goods, Roebuck Barber Shop, Princess’s Place store, and Lucile’s Dress Shop, from the building which housed Base Street Florist, Madison Tae Kwon Do, and Cowart & Zane law offices. Davis ordered the youth to leave the alley, and they reportedly threw their cigarettes down as they were leaving.
A few minutes later, MPD Officer Kelvin Franklin checked the alley when he saw flames coming from inside Lucile’s Dress Shop and went to summon help.
Records show that Madison Fire & Rescue was called at 10:07 p.m. and the first truck arrived on the scene at 10:10 p.m.
Lucile’s Dress Shop, owned by Buford and Lucile Selman, was the first shop to be consumed by the hungry fire shortly after it began.
Next, Roebuck’s Barber and Beauty Shop, and Princess’s Place, owned by Jimmy and Princess Roebuck, were the next two businesses engulfed in flames.
Finally, Madison Sporting Goods, owned by Alan Sowell, succumbed to the fire.
MPD Chief Rick Davis (left) and Patrolman Ben Ebberson (right) stand over Madison Sporting Goods owner Alan Sowell, kneeling, as he watches his store go up in flames.
The building, just east of Madison Sporting Goods, that housed Base Street Florists, Madison Tae Kwon Do, and Cowart & Zante sustained some fire, heat, water, and smoke damage.
The Courthouse Annex, next to it, was untouched by the fire.
As the fire quickly spread, shop owners and family and friends rushed in to rescue what inventory they could before the flames took over.
Alan Sowell got friends and family together to help move ammunitions and weapons out of his sporting goods store. He kept going in, until he had to be forcibly restrained from doing so.
Jimmy and Princess Roebuck watched helplessly as their shops went up in the fiery blaze.
Mary Ellen Greene, daughter of Buford and Lucile Selman, stood in tears as her parents’ dress shop, the oldest continuously owned (by the same person or couple) business in Madison, yielded to the leaping flames.
County employees helped ferry important records and documents away from the fire.
The heart of downtown is ablaze as firefighters strive valiantly to gain control of the blaze which ultimately destroyed four of Madison’s businesses and threatened several others.
Reporter Ginger Jarvis wrote in the April 25, 1997, Madison Enterprise-Recorder:
“By 11 p.m., the electricity had been cut off from downtown. As in some ghastly disco, flickering lights from emergency vehicles beat a shadowy rhythm for the grim dance against destruction. From the rooftops, fiery figures of brilliant orange and yellow leapt and swayed in their own demonic ballet, illuminating the horror in the faces of the people below.
“Borne by the evening’s still breeze, those flames and their acolyte sparks stretched out and clawed at the window frames of the building across the alley. Tiny flickers licked away the paint and began to burn in earnest, teasing onlookers with the threat of an entire town in ashes.’
Madison Fire & Rescue, with three pumpers and 20 personnel, was assisted by:
Live Oak Fire Department – one pumper, five personnel
Falmouth Fire Department – one tanker, one pumper, four personnel
Jasper Fire Department – one tanker, four personnel
City of Perry Fire Department – one pumper, two personnel
Taylor County Fire Rescue – one tanker, two personnel
Shady Grove volunteers – one tanker, five personnel
Tallahassee Fire Department – one aerial, five personnel
Jefferson County Fire Department – three engines, one tanker, 10 personnel
Lowndes County, Georgia – one attack truck, four personnel
Hamilton Cross Roads – one pumper, four personnel
Jennings – one engine, one tanker, five personnel
Valdosta Fire Department – one aerial, two personnel
Hamburg-Lovett Volunteer Fire Department – one apparatus, three personnel
Lee Volunteer Fire Department – one pumper, one tanker, 14 personnel
New Home Volunteer Fire Department – one pumper, one tanker, 10 personnel
Cherry Lake Volunteer Fire Department – one rescue truck, six personnel
Clyattville Volunteer Fire Department – one pumper, nine personnel
Twins Lakes Volunteer Fire Department – one pumper, eight personnel
Bemiss Barretts Volunteer Fire Department – one air truck, four personnel
Westside Volunteer Fire Department – one pumper, four personnel
Sirmans Volunteer Fire Department – one tanker, four personnel
Greenville Volunteer Fire Department – one pumper, six personnel
Pinetta Volunteer Fire Department – one pumper, six personnel
South Brooks County Fire Department – two pumpers, six personnel
Assisting at the fire also were American Red Cross, which brought an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) and seven personnel, and Dixie County EMS, who brought an ambulance, their administrator and four other personnel. Gilchrist County covered Dixie County for them so they could respond to Madison.
Shop owners, along with family and friends, had gone into the buildings to recoup inventory.
Madison Fire Chief Allen Blanton, who had served the City of Madison at the time for 23 years, said the 200 South Range block fire was the first downtown fire he had worked during his tenure with the fire department, and that it was the biggest block fire he had ever worked.
“I hope we never have one like this again,” he told this reporter in an interview a few days after the conflagration.
In the interview, he also said he appreciated the support from the public and the local volunteer departments and the surrounding counties.
“The firefighters did an outstanding job containing the fire to that one area,” Blanton said.
“I’m thankful that the community came together, and I’m impressed with the response of people,” Madison County Emergency Management Director Jim Stanley noted.
“It was a personal tragedy to families who have invested a lot of money in businesses,” said Jim Catron, Madison mayor.
In a letter to the editor in the Friday, April 25, 1997, Enterprise-Recorder, Madison County Sheriff Joe Peavy expressed deepest appreciation to the “local individuals and personnel from adjoining cities and counties for their assistance during the fire Friday night, April 18, which destroyed four downtown businesses.”
Peavy said that on Monday, April 21, 1997, he personally received calls from Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson and Governor Lawton Chiles, who offered their assistance.
Peavy went on to say, “We were truly blessed that no one was injured during this catastrophe. Isn’t it nice to live in a county where everyone still believes in helping one another?”
Authorities refused to name those who were in the alley before the buildings burned, because they were all minors, and the incident was under investigation. Police Chief Davis said that none of the juveniles could be charged, unless it was shown that they had set the fire intentionally. Twenty years later, it is still a mystery as to who caused the blaze. Few, if any at all, know the answer to that question.
After the fire, there were questions about the future of the businesses that had been destroyed.
Buford Selman, whose wife Lucile had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, told his daughter, Mary Ellen, that he felt the fire was God’s way of telling him to close the business, take Lucile, and go home. The Selmans had been in business since 1937.
The fire, nor their parents, pulling in the shingle on the business, could dim the fond memories the Selmans’ children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren had of the ladies clothing establishment.
“My grandchildren have enjoyed going to Boo Boo’s and Lucile’s store to play,” Mary Ellen Greene, said. “Now all that is gone.”
The business’s demise could also not dampen the ardor customers had for the store or the items they bought there.
Caroline Platt Leonard, wife of former Suwannee County Sheriff Robert Leonard, was quoted in the April 25 newspaper as saying: “I used to buy dresses and lingerie at Lucile’s Dress Shop when I was at the junior college. I would go into the store to buy one pair of panties and would end up with an armload of dresses because Lucile was a natural saleslady. She always made you realize you needed more than you thought you did. When Robert and I eloped, I bought my wedding dress at Lucile’s.”
“If you ever wanted to buy lingerie, you had to go to Lucile’s Dress Shop. That was the best,” declared Nell Ring.
“My wedding dress came from Lucile’s,” stated Clara Barrett, mother of Ginger Jarvis, who was a reporter for Greene Publishing, Inc. at the time. “It was light blue with a bolero-style jacket, a plain neckline, and a cummerbund belt. It cost about $25. In fact, every bought dress I had before I got married came from Lucile’s.”
Jimmy Roebuck, who had been a barber at the time for over 34 years, said, “I have worked hard over the years to build up my business. A lot of hard work has gone into it.”
Jimmy said that he had bought the building from Hazel Woodard in 1983. He and Princess had worked hard at night fixing the building up. He had previously rented space from Tommy Greene for the barber shop, but he wanted to expand and to own his own building and the Woodard space was available at a good price.
Among the valuables, the Roebucks lost at Princess’s Place was a bassinet she’d had since their oldest son, Robin, was a baby. The keepsake of 37 years was lost in the fire.
Still, Princess was quick to tell friends, “I might be burnt up, but I’m not burnt out.” Twenty years later, she is still an energetic woman.
Jimmy ordered all new equipment and he and Princess moved their businesses to 620 South Range Street in Madison, at the location which housed the beauty shop owned by Princess’ mother, Edwina Peavy. Jimmy remained at the location until his retirement.
The doors to Madison Sporting Goods reopened the Thursday after the fire as Sowell set up a temporary location at the corner of Horry and Pinckney Streets, inside an old shoe store. He also announced that he was going to rebuild the store at the old site on the corner of Range and Pinckney Streets. The business, under different ownership, remains there today.
Sowell, who saved approximately fifteen percent of his store’s stock with his brigade of friends and family, had purchased the building, when he was 23 years old, from Hazel and Marjorie Woodard.
Sowell had played different sports while growing up in Madison, and went on to play baseball at Brevard Community College, it seemed a natural fit for the young entrepreneur to go into the sporting goods business.
“I walked into (the store),” Sowell said, “and they asked, ‘May we help you?’”
Sowell said he responded, “If you will sell me your store.”
The disastrous start to the weekend did not stop the buoyancy of Madisonians as they bounced back and held the Down Home Days parade and festival among the charred remains of the fire the night before. They knew that everything would be all right, and now, 20 years later, with those memories of smoke and fire charred into our brains, times have changed, but the ultimate love of Madison’s people for their neighbors remains steadfast.