A building fire on Hwy 331 entering Luverne continues to burn hours after Crenshaw County Fire Departments rushed to put it out.

The first call to the Luverne Fire Department went out Monday morning at 4:15 a.m., according to LFD Assistant Chief William Neal.

“Upon arriving, we knew this building was two stories on the inside and had had multiple roofs on it,” Neal said.

“This building is probably, at least, 80 years old, and we knew it had furniture in it, which burns quickly.”

Along with LFD, seven other county departments lent a hand to combat the inferno. Neal says that about 40 men total from Luverne, Brantley, Rutledge, Glenwood, Chapel Hill, Honoraville, Highland Home and Spring Hill offered assistance.

The fire fighters went with the technique of surround and drown in order to ensure that the flames would not spread to neighboring structures.

“We had a lot of support. We are fortunate that where it was at, by the water tank, we had very good water flow from the fire hydrants,” Neal said.

“We kept it confined to the building of origin.”

While no one was injured in the fire and no surrounding buildings took a hit, the business within the building has suffered greatly.

The building formerly hosted the This-N-That thrift store, and according to Neal has lost a majority of its content.

“Andy and Diane Tomlin had just relocated the This-n-That a couple of months ago. An overwhelming majority of the contents had been destroyed,” Neal said.

“It’ll probably be smoldering for awhile.”

At this time, the department is still not sure of the cause of the fire, but Neal stated the flame was burning strongly in the rear of the building upon the department’s arrival.