NATCHEZ — Darby Short witnessed tragedy and compassion simultaneously Friday afternoon.

As flames began engulfing the third floor of her Main Street store, Darby’s Gifts and Decorative Accessories, the store owner focused all her attention on getting customers and employees out of the store.

But then they all started going back inside.

“I started grabbing some things from the front of the store as we were going out just so they wouldn’t get damaged, and then all these people just started helping,” said Short standing in front of her store watching firefighters extinguish remaining hotspots. “People are so unbelievably kind. They were going into that building with an element of danger to help us. It was incredible.

“We are so very blessed to have that kind of support from the community.”

The cause of Friday’s fire, which happened at approximately 4 p.m., and total damage to the store was unknown, Short said.

The helpers bringing merchandise out of the store to a neighboring building were able to save most of the things on the first floor, but not the second.

Darby discovered the fire after hearing loud noises coming from the second floor.

“I just thought plaster was falling off from the ceiling, but then I started smelling smoke and knew something was going on,” Darby said. “I ran over to flip the breaker, and we started trying to get everyone out.”

Darby’s employee Joey Gunning was quick to try to save as much of the store as possible, grabbing fire extinguishers with Short’s husband, Dennis, to put out the flames.

“We tried to fight the fire the best we could, but we couldn’t do much at that point,” Gunning said. “After that, we just started grabbing as much stuff as we could to get everything out.”

Running back and forth into a burning building didn’t cross Gunning’s mind at the time.

“There wasn’t time to be scared,” Gunning said. “Everyone just started helping out.”

Roy King was working from the Receivable Solutions building at the corner of Main and Commerce streets when someone yelled that Darby’s was on fire.

King was quick to lend a hand to help get things out of the building knowing they didn’t have much time to act.

“It was incredible to see all these businesses around here shut down and start coming to help,” King said. “People were coming out of there soaking wet from the water that was dripping through the ceiling, but they still kept going in to get more stuff.”

When more firefighters arrived, the helpers and dozens of onlookers were asked to stay clear of the building as the fire crews began breaking out the windows on the third floor to gain more access to the area.

Natchez Fire Chief Oliver Stewart said firefighters were able to extinguish the flames on the third floor quickly by taking a hose through the building. Additional firefighters gained access to the third floor from a nearby building and assisted in putting out remaining hot spots.

No injuries were reported in the blaze.

“We still don’t know what caused the fire,” Stewart said. “As soon as the flames are gone, we’ll start looking into exactly what happened.”

Though her Friday afternoon didn’t go exactly as planned, Short stood on the sidewalk across from the store that’s been open for more than 30 years watching firefighters go in and out of the charred building feeling blessed.

“This could have been so much worse because what if this had happened in the middle of the night?” Short said. “This whole block might have been taken out if no one was around to call the fire department.”

Short said the third floor of the store is mainly used for storage and had a lot of Christmas decorations she and other employees were preparing to bring down to put on display.

Losing only material items helped Short deal with a situation that could have been worse.

“At the end of the day, it’s all just stuff,” Short said. “All that can be replaced, but it could have been much worse.

“I’ve started from zero before, so we’ll get through this.”