Curtis newspaper publishing from new temporary quarters after building burns

Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Offices and archives of the Frontier County Enterprise were destroyed by a fire Sunday morning, but the newspaper will be published later this week. (Shary Skiles/McCook Gazette)

CURTIS, Neb. -- The Curtis newspaper may be a day or two late this week, but cut the owners some slack. Their building burned to the ground Sunday morning.

Like a true reporter, co-owner Tori Willis took pictures of the blaze.

Tori and her husband, Bob Willis, don't know yet the cause of the fire that destroyed their Frontier County Enterprise newspaper building and its contents. The fire was discovered about 3 a.m., by a teenager headed home after the Maywood high school prom.

It took Curtis and Maywood firefighters two hours to get the fire under control, in part because of the number of newspapers, dating back 130 years, stored in the basement.

Alerted that their building was on fire, Bob Willis drove and Tori, with her camera in hand, ran the four blocks to the newspaper office. Tori said she knew it was going to be bad when she watched the roof fall in.

Tori told a North Platte newspaper, "It helped thinking that I needed to cover it. I just thought of taking photos. I was in shock and disbelief that it was my building."

The newspaper was established in 1886; the Willises bought the weekly 14 years ago. The building was completed in the early 1900s.

An unoccupied building on the north side of the Enterprise was damaged by the fire, and a mechanic shop and lumber storage building on the south sustained smoke damage.

The Willises shopped in North Platte later Sunday for office supplies, computers and printers, setting up shop temporarily in a nearby location.

The Enterprise will be printed, on the press at the McCook Gazette, on Thursday this week instead of its usual Tuesday. "To remain a legal newspaper, we have to print 52 issues a year," Tori said.

An official of the Nebraska State Fire Marshal's office is investigating the fire scene.

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