Sunday's downtown fire isn't causing a financial hardship to the city, but could prove costly to area businesses.

Warsaw Fire Chief Ken Shepherd said Monday the city's firefighters do not receive overtime pay, so man hours for fighting the fire that destroyed The Butterfly and Warsaw Tool Supply Inc. haven't been computed. Many off-duty firefighters volunteered to help investigate the fire and will be compensated in the form of time off.

Also, the city has a hydrant rental agreement with United Water Indiana, with a portion paid by the city and a portion paid through fees assessed to water utility customers.

It is estimated that slightly more than one million gallons of water were used to extinguish the blaze.

The greatest cost to the city will likely be in overtime pay for street department workers who put in many hours beginning early into the fire, helping dig into the debris so that fire burning and embers smoldering beneath the fallen portion of the building could be doused.

The city also incurred a fuel expense by refilling the gas tanks of fire trucks from visiting departments that came in to assist.

While a good portion of the downtown area was cordoned off Sunday, all but Market Street between Lake and Buffalo streets was reopened to traffic on Monday. This causes an inconvenience to customers of businesses in that one-block stretch, Shepherd said, but NBS Office Supply on South Buffalo Street may be the most affected. The company's delivery van was parked in the alley when the fire broke out and, because of the ongoing fire investigation, they have been unable to move it.

Barbara Zimmerman, store manager at NBS, said they've been told they may be able to get the van out by mid-morning today. She said the business has always had a policy to deliver and set up equipment, and many out-of-town deliveries cannot be made today without the use of the van.

Zimmerman said on Monday customers were "real cooperative" when notified that the deliveries wouldn't be made. "Many of them decided that they didn't need the supplies today or, if they did, they would pick them up themselves," she said.

Owner of other businesses in the area said they came in on Sunday when they heard about the fire to check on their stores. Shepherd said everyone has been very cooperative and, so far, patient with the investigation and inconvenience.

Phil and Jean Ann Dennie of Dennie Electric and Dennie House said the firemen did "a wonderful job." Jean Ann said there was a bit of worry over embers on the roof of the business, but the firefighters continued to spray the roofs of neighboring buildings to keep the debris that landed on them from starting additional fires. "We saw that they really had things under control," she said.

When they came in Sunday, the Dennies expected to find merchandise coated with a film because of the smoke and soot in the air, but nothing was damaged inside the building.

Jean DeVries, owner of Warsaw Antiques, said there was a lot of smoke in the building Sunday, but that was dissipated by Monday, with just the odor remaining. DeVries kept the doors to the business standing open while she was working Monday to air out the building a little more.

She said her biggest concern was retrieving her records in case her business also caught fire. "I've got about 80 people with merchandise here besides me," she said, "and I came flying in for my records when I saw the fire on TV."

The fire department is keeping a 24-hour continued security of the fire scene until the investigation is complete. The road closure will be in effect until that time. [[In-content Ad]]