Smoke filled two downtown buildings Thursday afternoon after an apparent electrical fire started in a storage area at Marietta Wine Cellars.
Flames were confined to the rear portion of the Wine Cellars' 190 Front St. location, but smoke rolled throughout the building and the neighboring Riverside Artists Gallery.
Wine Cellars co-owner Al Phillips said the fire started in a vent/fan in an office ceiling.
"I tried to pull the fan out of the ceiling, but it (the fire) had already gone through the ceiling," he said.
Marietta Fire Department Capt. Bruce Weckbacher said the department's investigation confirmed the origin of the fire, which was ruled accidental.
Structural damage was minimal as the fire did not spread beyond a 10-foot radius around the fan, Weckbacher said.
"It got up in the floor joists, but it never went up through the floor into the second floor," he said.
Most of the damage came from smoke and water, Weckbacher said. He estimated the cost of the damage at about $10,000.
The fire department received a call about the situation at 3:18 p.m. Thursday. Within minutes, multiple fire trucks were on the scene, blocking off Butler Street between Front and Second streets.
As fans were set up at the entrances of the Wine Cellars and the artists gallery, Marietta safety-service director Chad Presley said firefighters were checking to make sure smoke was all that had spread through the buildings.
The Wine Cellars moved into the location, formerly occupied by the Goodwill store, in February. Phillips kept a sense of humor as he watched the firefighters work, noting that the last time the store moved, they had to deal with flooding in 2004 and 2005.
"This time around we had fire. I'm not moving again," he said.
Phillips and his wife, daughter and granddaughter were in the store, along with a customer, when the fire started. All of them got out safely, he said.
While he hadn't had a chance to assess the damage yet, Phillips said he expected the store to recover from the fire.
"It won't be a disaster of any sort," he said. "We'll get through it."
Riverside Artists Gallery member Betsy Cook said she was downtown when a gallery worker called to tell her smoke was pouring into the building. Cook headed over to the 188 Front St. gallery and began helping remove fabric art pieces that she feared would absorb the smoke.
"You couldn't even see in there for a while," she said.
Firefighters told the gallery workers to stop carrying things out until the smoke let up. Once fans had somewhat cleared the air, gallery workers and members continued to take items out, with the help of workers from some neighboring stores.
Cook said the gallery was left with a smell of smoke and a coating of soot. The cleanup will start today.
"We think the artwork will be OK," Cook said, adding that firefighters and workers from Promanco, which owns the affected buildings, did a good job of minimizing the damage.
