Holyoke Fire Department Quickly Extinguish Blaze

I reached for the magazine sitting far back on the shelf of the magazine rack in Barns and Nobel as my phone chimed in. A burst of three text messages interrupted my train of thought as I went to turn the pages. It must have been important if I received three in a row, I thought to myself. I checked. "Fire on Laurel ST", is what I read. "Oh crap!" I uttered aloud. My business parter turned questioning what the exclamation was pertaining to. "Theres a fire, lets go." Moments later we were on our way to the scene. A second text came through. "It must be major, they called for additional equipment." My heart sunk. As we made our way closer to the scene, we couldnt see any smoke. Puzzled, we found an officer blocking a section of the road next to South ST. Parking, in the dry cleaner's parking lot, we headed down the road. A group of fire fighters were taking a small break from fighting the blaze just on the corner before the building. Still seeing no smoke, we assumed something much worse was taking place. At that point we still had no idea what had occurred. We saw not flames, but instead a scene of high emotions. The fire department had successfully contained the blaze and suppressed the flames. We do not know the severity of the damage to the building at this time. The individuals and fire fighter that were taken to the hospital are in our thoughts and prayers. A special thank you goes out to the Holyoke Fire Department and anyone who responded to todays scene.