(September 26, 2006)—Firefighters from nine departments were battling the flames Tuesday evening after a fire that started in a restaurant kitchen spread to adjoining buildings in downtown Chilton.

The fire gutted or heavily damaged six buildings, half of Chilton’s downtown.

Some of the buildings the fire destroyed were more than a century old.

The arrival of a ladder truck from Woodway gave firefighters a means of getting above the flames, which spread along the roof line after the fire broke out at Joann’s Kitchen just before 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The $750,000 truck, which Woodway purchased in 2005 in anticipation of the construction of a new facility by Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, has a 100-foot aerial platform and is capable of pumping 2,000 gallons of water a minute.

Without it, the damage from the fire would likely have been much worse.

By 5 p.m. crews were beginning to get the upper hand on the fire, but firefighters are also fighting the heat and several ambulances were dispatched to the scene to give crews a place to cool down.

One Chilton firefighter was administered an IV at the scene.

Chilton is a town of about 300 people 21 miles south of Waco.

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