Photo by Karin Elton Marshall, Ghent and Lynd firefighters responded to a fire at the 348 West Main Street building on Monday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — The sound of breaking glass could be heard and black smoke could be seen rolling out of the windows as area firefighters responded scurried around after getting a report of smoke coming from a downtown business in Marshall on Monday

“The fire was mostly confined to the Perfect Styles salon, although there is some water and smoke damage to the other businesses (in that complex),” Marshall Fire Chief Quentin Brunsvold said. “The fire is still under investigation by the state fire marshal’s office. The fire marshal is probably coming (today). It can take awhile to determine everything. We have a good idea of how it started, but we need his blessing.”

Mackenzie Vogt said she learned about the fire in a Facebook message from her mom, Cindy Vogt.

“She and my dad (Dan) own the 348 W. Main building,” Mackenzie Vogt said. “There’re 12 tenants in the building. He got a call and then my mom messaged me, saying there’s a fire and asking me to come down here with my dad. I heard that they got everybody out, so that’s good.”

Vogt noted that the situation was “not pretty,” but she said she’s grateful for the timing of the fire as several young dancers are typically at the Marshall Academy of Dance, which is located on the top floor of the building, once school is out.

“I’m just thankful that dance isn’t in session yet or there would’ve been a lot of little children inside,” Vogt said. “So it happened at a good time. There’s been quite a bit of smoke coming out. They had to break a couple windows in one of the downstairs businesses to get the smoke out.”

Phil Myhrberg and his wife, Lisa, own Perfect Styles, where the first window was broken out by firefighters.

“That’s where they went in it looks like,” Phil Myhrberg said of the entrance to Perfect Styles, where the front door leads out to the ally in the back of the building complex. “You can still see the smoke coming out the windows.”

Brunsvold said that firefighters try not to break windows if they don’t have to, but sometimes that is what needs to be done.

“We were trying to get some ventilation in there,” he said. “We opened many of them. You try not to break the windows unless there’s no other way. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.”

Myhrberg said it was fortunate that the salon was not open on Monday and that the “massage lady” did not have appointments at the time of the fire.

“She’s usually in there, but she was gone (on Monday),” he said. “The people from City Hall were all out already, too, when I got here.”

Brunsvold said the proximity of the fire — right along Main Street — was a bit of a challenge, not only traffic-wise, but also because there were a lot of employees nearby.

“It was right by City Hall, too,” Brunsvold said. “There was smoke in the garage area, so we evacuated them just to be safe. We also shut the electricity off, from that building all the way to 4th Street. We just pulled the pin for the whole thing. Then (later) we turned everyone back on and left the power off to that building.”

Parts of Main, 3rd and 4th streets were shut down and traffic was diverted around while firefighters worked. Calls for firefighters with air packs were sent out quickly after the fire was reported. Just before 3 p.m., the Ghent Fire Department was paged for manpower. Lynd was also called for manpower soon after that.

“Back in the day, you had to go through as many as you can, but we’re smarter now,” Brunsvold said. “We make guys go through a rehab. It’s a determined amount of time where they’re in rehab before they’re going back in (the burning building with air packs on). They also have to make sure they hydrate. We don’t want cowboys in there who end up going down. We try to prevent firefighter injuries, so it takes more guys to go through.”

While insurance will likely help offset some of the damage done, Myhrberg said the fire will take a toll financially.

“They got hoses in there and sprayed all over, so it’s going to be a mess,” Myhrberg said. “I would imagine that we’ll have to gut it and redo it. We’ll lose income, too. We have appointments (Tuesday) that we’ll have to cancel.”

Melissa Dieken, daughter of Dan and Cindy Vogt, said she didn’t see fire blazing, but that smoke damage is just about as bad.

“As long as everyone got out OK,” she said. “That’s was matters.”

Dan Vogt assisted firefighters with whatever he could as he stood there, watching in disbelief.

“I just don’t want to lose my tenants,” he said. “We have 12 different tenants right now.”

Despite the major inconvenience for everyone, Vogt was already putting a plan in place regarding clean-up.

“I told (owner) Brenda (Krog) from Mid-West Cleaners to get ready for (today),” Vogt said.