by Mark Wiggins
GROESBECK - A nighttime fire has left a Central Texas police department without a home.
The blaze started around 7:30 PM in Groesbeck, about 35 miles east of Waco.
Smoke and flames destroyed the inside of the building that housed Groesbeck PD, the municipal court and the public works department.
Groesbeck Chief of Police Jerri Almy says Wednesday night she got a phone call she'll never forget.
"The sheriff's office dispatcher called my house and said, 'Chief?' and I said, 'Yes?'" "She said, 'the police department's on fire,' and I was like, 'I'm on my way!'"
Chief Almy arrived just in time to see the building that once housed Groesbeck PD smoldering.
Just across the street, Groesbeck's Volunteer Fire Department jumped into action. Deputy Fire Chief Mike Thompson says it took firefighters about an hour to beat back the flames.
"It was a lot of smoke, due to the nature of the building, the way it's built; but there was a great deal of fire in the center area where the fire initially took place, and did a lot of alligator scarring across the entire roof of the building. So honestly there was a lot of heat in this building at that time," Thompson says.
Thursday afternoon, Deputy State Fire Marshall Ed Cheever arrived to investigate the cause of the blaze.
"I know that the first report came from an individual that said they saw the fire coming from the roof area, looked like maybe it was coming from a vent. So far that's about the best that I have as far as witness reports yet," says Cheever.
Chief Almy says fortunately officers were able to salvage most of the department's computers and records.
For now they're housed across the street in the Groesbeck Economic Development building; but with conditions cramped, it can only make do for so long.
"We are in the process of trying to find a building," says Almy.
Groesbeck mayor Jackie Levington met with city council members in an emergency city council meeting Thursday night to determine a course of action for the department.
