Chester antique auction burns on Monday night

CHESTER, S.C. — Rick Cox has run an antique auction in downtown Chester for12 years.

The bi-monthly event draws people from Charlotte to Columbia and beyond.

"You could find real nice glass, jewelry, he had furniture. Real nice stuff," said Brenda Fleming, who on Tuesday came to stare at a burned out building on Gadsden Street.

On Monday night about 60 people gathered inside the century-old building for an antique auction. Some of them started noticing an odd odor.

"We could smell something. Something that was like electrical," said Judith Hare who attended the auction.

The owner Rick Cox stopped the event to investigate.

"He went into the other room to check it out, but there was no smoke at that time," she said.

Within minutes there was smoke visible from the back corner of the ceiling in the next room.

It's the room where Cox kept most of his antiques and collectables.

"We saw the smoke," Cox said, "And there was a retired firefighter there who asked for a fire extinguisher."

They emptied two extinguishers into the flames, but they didn't fizzle out. Cox got everyone out of the building, and the flames soon towered overhead.

Hare had left earlier, but got a phone call from a friend when she got home.

"She said, 'Oh my God the place is engulfed in flames! They're shooting through the roof," she said.

Firefighters were able to save much of the building. Many of the valuables have smoke and water damage, others were destroyed.

Cox travels to roughly 220 auctions in five states every year. He's always adding new items to his showroom and others for the auction. Now, he knows he can't rebuild downtown.

"You just never expect this to happen to you. You see your history flash before you. You just put so much into it," cox said.

The fire appears to be electrical, possibly in a light fixture, though investigators have not revealed an official cause.

Cox estimates he lost about $35,000 worth of antiques, mostly furniture.

He didn't keep renter's insurance, and said it's because his inventory turned over so much that it varied widely.

He plans to start over, somewhere else.

"It was just a very good community atmosphere, and it's going be missed I'm sure," he said.

It's not clear what will happen to the historic building, which will be quickly boarded up. There's also a gaping hole in the roof, and damage to interior walls.

Fleming feared the worst about what happens next.

"It's just another building in Chester that nothing will be done to," she said. "Maybe someone will come along and restore downtown Chester to what it should be."

WSOC