Fire Destroys Shopping Center in Southwest Indiana Town

A fast-moving fire has destroyed nine businesses at a shopping center in the in southwestern Indiana town of Newburgh.

Assistant Newburgh Fire Chief Chad Bennett tells the Evansville Courier & Press Saturday’s early morning fire left the Sharon Place shopping center in smoldering ruins. No injuries were reported.

Some 60 firefighters from Newburgh, Chandler, Yankeetown and Ohio Township responded and fought the blaze for more than two hours.

Bennett says the fire appears to have started in the central part of the shopping center. Crews had trouble battling the fire because flames spread to the attic of one building and then crossed the firewall into another.

Town Manager Cynthia Berger says she’s saddened by the fire’s impact on businesses in the town just east of Evansville.