Controversy Continues Even After Former Adult Bookstore is Gone

Investigators are still searching for the cause of a fire that damaged a former truck stop which was most recently an adult bookstore in Spencer County. Crews were called out to Love Boutique on Old Highway 231 and Interstate 64 around 6:30 Sunday morning. The State Fire Marshal is in town to help investigate. Trouble, trouble and more trouble, that's what some Spencer County officials call the abandoned complex that housed the Love Boutique. Many wanted the store closed as soon as it opened its doors. "There's alot of people that didn't like the idea that this business was here, there was alot of controversy, says Carter Fire District Chief Dan Reinke and calls this complex problematic years after all of the businesses there closed. Reinke says scrap iron, copper, anything metal that they could sell has been taken out air conditioning units, air conditioning units on the roof basically anything they can sell they've taken out of the place. Now there's a new issue, a Sunday morning fire boasting 20 foot flames and there's no word on where and how it started.  It's not the first fire at the complex, five rooms in the vacant motel next to the Love Boutique caught fire back in 2010 and the cause of that fire was never found. Reinke tells us these buildings are basically unsafe, anybody that's out here scraping that shouldn't be, somebody gets hurt, its not gonna be a good thing. Reinke says the best solution is to start over. Squabbles over the choice of businesses are in the past, the new dilemma is how to stop thieves and fires in this secluded area. The Spencer County Building Inspector says he's not commenting on whether the buildings will be torn down. Fire investigators say they do know that something was used to start the fire but they still don't know what that is.