NAPPANEE — A large business fire in downtown Nappanee kept firefighters busy Saturday.

The building at the corner of Main and Walnut street housed a butcher shop and a carpet store. The second story is residential apartments.

Firefighters had to rescue one man from a window, but he was not hurt. Everyone else inside the building made it out on their own safely.

Rudy Espinoza lives across the street from the building. When we woke up Saturday morning, he thought his house was on fire until he looked out the window.

"I could see flames coming out the third and fourth window so I came out here on the porch and next thing you knew there was flames shooting through the roof and everything and the smoke was so intense you could hardly see the lights on the fire trucks," said Espinoza.

He knew people lived in the apartments upstairs and was relieved to hear everyone got out OK.

"We just thank God that nobody was hurt," Espinoza said.

The single digit temperatures made the fire an even bigger challenge for firefighters. The water froze to their helmets, equipment, and parts of the street.

"Cold weather and the ice gets froze up and there ain't no way you can avoid it, just grin and bear it," said Nappanee Firefighter Junior Mast.

Firefighters took turns defrosting in a nearby business and it didn't take long for warm food and drinks to arrive.

"That's the nice part about your fellow firefighters and mutual aid — they get right out and they hang with us and it's a big job in the city today but we are gonna git-er-done," said Mast.

It was a big fire, a big job, and another big change for Nappanee.

"We were having floods last week, lot of snow the week before, getting over the tornado and all this stuff. Seems like its been a rough winter," said downtown business owner Donnie George.

Nappanee Fire Department was joined by seven other departments, including two from Kosciusko County, in battling the blaze.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.