Puxico rallies behind basketball team after tragic fire

PUXICO — David Phillips is the owner of Sam’s Auto Sales in Puxico, and he had a heart attack in December. Within a few short days, he was back at work but he couldn’t do much. It was then that the community of Puxico reminded him of how much they cared.

“I had so many people stop by to check on me,” Phillips remarked. “I had so many people come in just to see if they could do anything to help me. That’s the thing about this community: we stick together.”

Phillips watched helplessly from inside his business as a major fire raged through a series of buildings across the street early in the morning Saturday, Feb. 22. Firefighters battled the blaze for hours, and multiple departments were activated; but in the end, a large swath of downtown Puxico was destroyed.

“Most of Main Street is gone now,” Phillips said. “I guess that explains why so many people are hoping for good things with the boys basketball.”

The Puxico Indians boys basketball team advanced to the Class 2 quarterfinals after a decisive win over the Valley Vikings on Monday night. The team will play in the quarterfinal game against South Iron on Friday night. The team and coach declined to make predictions about the upcoming game, but the rest of town is already abuzz.

“I think that place is going to be packed,” remarked Dee Loflin, owner of the Puxico Weekly Press newspaper. “The people generally travel well for Puxico basketball, anyway. But I think it might mean a little bit more this year for some people in the community.”

Loflin was one of the business owners who lost her office in the February fire.

“It was just heartbreaking to watch everything burn,” Loflin said. “That’s one of those things you just don’t ever really want to think about being a possibility.”

Loflin said the community immediately showed their support even when the fire was isolated to just The Midway restaurant.

“There were so many people that came out and helped me and the businesses next to me move our stuff out,” Loflin stated. “We saved what we could.”

Among the things that were lost was one of the “liar’s benches.”

“The liar’s benches were such a regular landmark,” Loflin laughed. “During the summer months, different older men would come and sit on the bench and tell stories about how things used to be. Some women did, too. I think one of those benches was saved, though.”

Phillips confirmed that one bench was saved.

“I’m keeping the one bench that was saved in my garage,” Phillips remarked. “Me and a couple other guys ran over and picked it up and carried it out. We wanted to keep it safe.”

Rebuilding is uncertain

Mark Crisel is the owner of Shelter Insurance, which was one of the offices lost to the fire; and he is also the owner of the large building that housed the Puxico Weekly Press and the Larry Ward CPA office. He doesn’t know about rebuilding at this point in time.

“It’s so hard to think about that right now,” Crisel said. “My main concern is to get that whole area cleaned up, because it is kind of a hazard. After that’s done, then we can start looking at costs and building designs to see what will happen. I think we would all like to stay in the same spot, but we’ll just have to see.”

Loflin said she has received numerous offers of potential locations for the newspaper office, but she hasn’t accepted any.

“Right now, I’m working from home and doing everything on the computer from my house,” Loflin said. “I’m fortunate that I’m able to do that. But I really miss the daily human contact of speaking with people in the community. I want to see if Mark will rebuild, because that’s where I would like to be.”

While Crisel and Loflin wait, the community will continue to rally together and support each other.

“Someone started making shirts that say ‘Puxico Strong’ on them,” Loflin noted. “I think that is very accurate. This is a very strong and supportive community.”

“Definitely, if the boys win and go to state, it will be a ray of sunlight on these clouds,” Phillips remarked. “It would definitely be the good news we all want to hear.”

“Win or lose, nothing will diminish what the boys basketball team has done this year,” Crisel remarked. “They put in the work. They have sacrificed the time and the effort. They have worked so hard to get to this point, and the community will back them regardless of the outcome. We’re proud of them and we will always be proud of them. We hope they win, because they have earned it; but we don’t want them to feel any extra pressure. They fought hard to get to this point, and they have done an outstanding job.”

As game day approaches, Loflin anticipated it will be what most people discuss for a while, and regardless of the outcome, everyone will know they are “Puxico Strong.”