An early morning fire destroyed three local businesses in Checotah on Tuesday as onlookers waited for the fire department to extinguish the engulfing flames.

At 12:24 a.m. Chris Ferguson called the Checotah Police Department to report that he was seeing fire through the window of the old Aardvark Video/Rent-A-Flick Video store. However, Ferguson stated it took volunteer firefighters about 15 minutes to get to the scene and then the fire hydrants by the building didn’t work and they were forced to get water two blocks away from another hydrant.

Ferguson just happened to be on his way home from work but wishes Checotah had a fulltime fire department because in his opinion it might have possibly saved the other two businesses.

Rent-A-Flick, Elite Fitness and Vic’s Detail Shop were all a total loss.