CARTERVILLE, Ill. (WSIL) -- The strong smell of soot and smoke permeated the air surrounding the Amazon Storage facility in Carterville this weekend.
Around 3 a.m. Sunday, a fire broke out at the facility took multiple crews hours to put out.
On Monday, multiple customers came to the facility hoping to secure their belongings. Or salvage whatever survived.
Janet Voss, of Carterville, says she lost items recovered in a 2004 house fire.
"The unit next to us was the last one that was on fire so the fire went up through the rafters so it melted a lot of our items," Voss said. "We were very lucky."
At a unit next door, a frustrated Kelley Neal, of Carbondale, lost a family heirloom: her great grandmother's antique mirror. But thankfully, Neal says, she was able to save more intimate, irreplaceable items.
"Baby stuff. Things that belonged to my mother, her mother," Neal said.
Neal is looking for a new storage unit and is disappointed that the facility failed to protect her belongings.
Manager Dan Killman, who didn't know about the fire until he got called into work Monday morning, saved his mother's bible that was barely singed by the fire.
Owner Wesley Lehman was sleeping when police knocked on his door to inform him about the fire. Lehman says more than 100 of the 600 units there were destroyed.
Lehman is disappointed about not being able to prevent the fire.
"I could put armed guards out here and have firetrucks parked out there on the road but I don't know how to do any better than that," Lehman said. "I'm at wit's end and it's just frustrating."
Lehman says he's speaking with lawyers to figure out the next steps to take and how to help customers. The State Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.
