By Rina Risper
A fire raged through Discount Dave’s Buy Rite Furniture store located at 1121 S. Washington Avenue on Sunday, May 3, 2009. The entire building was engulfed in flames and smoke from the fire that could be seen from Canal and Saginaw on the westside of town. Hundreds of people stood on Washington Avenue and watched as firefighters doused the flames with water and saved the Cadillac Club located at 1115 S. Washington Avenue, which is right next to the destroyed building. The building on the other side of furniture store was saved as well.
According to Mark King, who received a call from someone on the southside of town 
about seeing smoke, the fire started about 10:00 a.m. Mark King said, "I came down to pick up my equipment from the Cadillac Club. You should have seen it. The fire was unbelievable. The building’s (Cadillac Club’s ) sprinkler system went off and supposedly there is some smoke damage. I have events booked there."
King said he was shocked when he realized how the blaze damaged the furniture store after returning the second time.
Luckily no one was injured in the fire but there will be displaced workers on Monday.
David Cripe, owner of Betty’s Buttons & T-Shirts located at 1153 S. Washington Avenue said that he was at a fair in Potterville and came rushing back to Lansing to make sure that his store was not affected. He received a telephone call from a family member about the tragic event. Cripe was visibly shaken while watching a bulldozer claw at the brittle crumbling internal walls of the furniture store.
According to close friends, when Dave Sheets heard about the fire, he had chest pains and was rushed to the hospital.
As of the printing of the article, there is no further news regarding how the fire started or updates about Sheets’ health.
