A fire has burned an economic hole in downtown Parker. Dakota Dollar was consumed by flames as firefighters worked to keep two other buildings from burning down. Fire crews were called to the dollar store on main street and second street in downtown Parker around 5:30 Thursday night. 

Turner County Emergency Manager, Tom Gillespie, says firefighters got the flames under control before ten Thursday night and the two buildings on either side of the dollar store have smoke damage. Gillespie says crews were able to save the structures and get files and computers out of an attorney's office.

Fire officials don't know what sparked the flames yet, their main concern Thursday was just making sure Parker didn't lose three businesses.

"It's gonna make a hole in the community," Parker resident Roger Buller said as he watched the flames. 

The hole in Parker started with thick black smoke that not only filled one business but swept through the small town.

"We had heavy smoke on approach, called for mutual aid immediately," Parker fire chief Bob Masters said.

From the minute fire crews showed up at Dakota Dollar they knew they had more than they bargained for.

"As this thing started to progress we saw that the potential to lose too many buildings was definitely there," Masters said.

And as the sun went down Thursday night, smoke turned into flames that threatened the neighboring Turner County print shop and the new Knology Cable building and law office on both sides of the dollar store.

"Our main thing is to save, we've got the Knology building and the print shop. We have every department in the county paged," Masters said.

As Parker residents watched the smoke and flames fill their town they were also pulling for the crews who were working to save their local stores.

"We don't need to lose anymore, little towns suffer enough. That Robin Eich law office there that is a new building there. I suppose they'll get a little water damage and stuff. Not good," Buller said.

And that's why firefighters worked hard to save the buildings that have been the foundation of downtwon Parker.

"You need a little something like that to keep these towns going, it's a bad deal," Buller said. 

That part of downtown is no stranger to fires, back in the early '80's a fire destroyed the bowling alley and also damaged the drug store next door. That drug store was re-built as the dollar store that burned down Thursday.

Updated 10/22/09 10:25PM