Fire Calls, But No Fires at Two Local Businesses Monday Morning

Effingham firefighters were called to two local businesses on West Fayette Avenue Monday morning, but there were no fires at either location.

The first call came about 9am to Petro Stopping Center. Assistant Fire Chief Matt Kulesza said a rooftop heating unit malfunctioned, sending smoke into the main part of the building. The unit was shut down and repairs were being made. Firefighters cleared smoke from the building. 

Members of the Effingham County Health Department were called to make sure some of the food being laid out for the Petro buffet was not affected by the smoke.

The other call, minutes later, was to Hardee's Restaurant. The staff reported that the heating and air conditioning system was turning off and on, although there was no fire and no smoke in the building. Repairs were being made to the system to get the restaurant open again.

In addition to those two fire calls, a power outage occurred on the west side in the area of Effingham Junior High School and Effingham High School. AmerenIllinois had service restored just after 10am. 212 AmerenIllinois customers were affected by the outage, which also shut out service to the traffic signals at Henrietta and Fayette and at Henrietta and Grove. Wire damage caused the power outage.