Texas Museum Next to Fire Station Destroyed by Fire

Dang. Being 40 yards from the fire station wasn't enough to save this beautiful building.

Having lived in Decatur Texas for a year in 2009, this really breaks my heart.

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The Wise County Heritage Museum was lost to a fire early Saturday morning. I used to see this beautiful building daily.

The building, constructed in 1893 to house Decatur Baptist College, has been used to tell the county’s story for the past 50 years. As the blaze spread through the timbers and hardwoods of the 130-year-old landmark at 1602 South Trinity St. in Decatur — with towering flames illuminating the sky from miles away — most, if not all of that history was lost.

The power of fire

What's wild about this is how close this building is to the fire station. In the picture below, you can see the building on the right, and a firetruck on the left.  The firetruck is parked in the driveway of the fire station, it's hidden behind all the bushes in the foreground.

Here's an overhead view:

Some people sheesh!

So this rascal on Twitter is trying to not only dis the Decatur fire department, he threw the entire state of Texas under the bus because he thinks proximity to a fire is the only factor when it comes to putting it out.  Take a look at what this fool posted:  

Does this genius think that firemen stand on the roof of their building and scour the skyline looking for fires on the horizon?  This fire could have been burning inside for an hour before it showed any signs on the exterior.  

Terrible loss

Anytime we lose a building that houses history, we lose valuable information about the past.  As always, the fire could have been a lot worse, it could have spread to adjacent properties, so kudos to the Decatur Fire Department for keeping it under control.