Evening fire damages old Uptown Market, current Salvation Army
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[An early-evening fire caused significant smoke damage to the Salvation Army in Harrisburg.
Harrisburg firefighters arrived at about 5:40 p.m. to find heavy black smoke and fire coming from a small, wooden storage building attached to the main building. The fire had spread through an opening into the rear of the main building. The fire also spread along the roof of a building behind the main building.
Firefighters were able to contain the fire to the back area of the main building, but some stored goods appeared to be burned and the building filled with smoke, Fire Chief Bill Summers said. There was no heat damage in the customer areas, but there probably was a great deal of smoke damage throughout the building, Summers said.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire quickly. By 6 p.m. tubs of stored clothing had been dragged from the rear of the building to keep damage to a minimum. Smoke from the building was vented with three large fans.
The Salvation Army is next to Durham's Ace Hardware. That business did not sustain fire damage, Summers said.
The fire became visible before it had time to do worse damage. If the fire had started at night, it could have spread to several uptown buildings before it was discovered. Typically fires are discovered at night after they break through the roof of a building, Summers said.
"We were just lucky it was the time of day it was," Summers said.
The building used to be the location of the Uptown Market and is still owned by Randy Nyberg, who leases it to the Salvation Army. He said the possible point of origin is an old motor room for the supermarket, but the motors have long since been removed.
This morning, Summers said the cause of the fire is still unknown.
"We're still looking at it," Summers said. "We'll be looking at it more today."