Friday, June 19, 2009

A fire broke out at the Maytag Laundromat in Marathon early Thursday morning.

The fire appeared to be contained to the back of the building, leaving most of the washing and drying machines in the front of the shop in somewhat better shape. Smoke and fire damage could be plainly seen on the outside of the white building, and black streaks covered the walls surrounding windows and doors.

The fire started at about 12:15 a.m. on Thursday, and fire fighters had to hook up to a fire hydrant across U.S. 1 in order to battle the blaze. Running the fire hose across the street shut down traffic for several hours.

"They did a good job of knocking it down," said Marathon City Manager Clyde Burnett. As of press time, a cause of the fire had not been determined.

Although the building was not occupied at the time of the blaze, firefighters did rescue a blind dog that lives in the laundromat. One of the laundromat's employees said when she got to the scene she informed rescue crews of the animal inside.

"I told the guys there is a dog in there," said the employee, who only wanted to be identified as Sophia.

She said that rescue crews were able to get the dog out of the building and administer oxygen to the animal while it was taken to the vet. On Thursday morning, she said she had heard the dog was still OK.

Sophia said she believed that most of the fire and smoke damage was contained to the back of the building where there is an office and some storage space. She said the front experienced mostly water damage.

It appears the fire will temporarily shut down Marathon's only laundromat, although for how long is still uncertain. The Marathon Fire Department still had the building roped off on Thursday morning as City Assistant Fire Marshall Adam Geaneas was on the scene investigating.