12-12-13 ripon fire update

Nobody was injured in a fire that damaged three downtown Ripon businesses and displaced nearly two dozen residents.   Ripon Fire Chief Tim Saul says the fire was reported around 2:30am Wednesday in the historic downtown Ripon Main Street shopping district.  At least 13 adults and nine children who lived in apartments above the businesses were able to escape safely.  Saul says it very easily could have been a tragedy.  "This fire in particular had a deadly, deadly potential,"  Saul told AM 1170 WFDL's Between the Lines program.  "...no other means of egress, the age of the structure, so we're very fortunate we had no fatalities here."  Saul says more than 60 firefighters from 15 to 20 fire departments assisted the Ripon Fire Department at the scene.  "We did have some water issues.  We were taxing the system.  We were flowing over 15 hundred gallons a minute,"  Saul said.   Saul says investigators still don’t know what started the blaze.