Shortly after midnight Friday morning, December 13th, 2019, I woke up to hear Bourbon Fire Department being dispatched to assist Cuba with a commercial structure fire at the old Midway Motel near the intersection of Hwy 19 and Old 66…the original hotel building, which faced Old Highway 66 on the northeast corner of Highway 19, was torn down a couple of years ago. It was once owned by Noel Piccard, a Blues Hockey Player many years ago…and this building was a two wing section that sat half a block north of the original structure and had been used as apartments in more recent years. Cuba received the call at 12:06 am and arrived to find the south facing wing totally engulfed in heavy fire, called for a second alarm shortly after…I arrived right behind Sullivan`s Pumper 854 and observed the west facing wing fully involved….
…and Cuba firefighters deploying their 75 foot Ladder Truck Nozzle to fight the heavy fire from the structure….
Fires 2019-1213 Old Midway Motel in Cuba 2nd Alarm Structure Fire
Fires 2019-1213 2nd Vid Midway Motel in Cuba Fully Involved
Fires 2019-1213 3rd Vid Midway Motel Fire in Cuba Early This Morning
Fires 2019-1213 4th Video Midway Hotel Fire in Cuba Early This Morning 101 N Franklin St
Fires 2019-1213 5th Video from NW Corner
Fires 2019-1213 6th Video Midway Hotel Remains Fire in Cuba
The video above shows a firefighter getting a little too close to the fire and getting caught and called out for it…fighting fire is a dangerous enough job without stunts like this. In over 45 years of photographing fires, I have seen too many things like this and Thank God no one has gotten seriously burned or hurt, but the potential is definitely there to do so.
By now the fire had reached the end of the road, burning as far down the wing as it could, and was beginning to wind down…
Sullivan Fire District sent a second crew to assist and they arrived shortly after, as well as crews from Owensville Fire District….
I left the scene shortly after Sullivan`s reinforcements arrival, all firefighters on scene had a lot of mopping up to do…I heard later in the week that the fire was deemed to be suspicious and an investigation was underway. As usual, Cuba Fire Department did a great job maintaining control of the fire with good assistance from Cuba PD, Crawford County Sheriffs Office and Missouri State Highway Patrol.