A fire broke out in the basement of the Campus Book Mart store located on East Lee Boulevard close to the Mississippi State University campus late last night. The investigation is ongoing and the cause of the fire is still unknown.
Stan Raye, store manager of Campus Book Mart, said the fire started in the basement, and he was first alerted by the smoke detectors that went off.
Ray also said the damage will have to be assessed before the store can re-open. 
“The fire department came up right away. It was confined to the basement, but the smoke came up, and so we had smoke damage, which we have to clean up before we can re-open,” Raye said. “We are waiting for the insurance company to get here and tell us what to do.”
Raye also said the fire department did an excellent job in containing the fire and putting it out quickly.
Sid Salter, MSU Chief Communications Officer, said the university’s involvement was primarily because of the store’s proximity to campus and the temporary closure of Lee Boulevard by law enforcement and fire personnel.
“Thanks to excellent work by those first responders, campus impact was minimal,” Salter said. “As always, we tried to utilize social media to give our university stakeholders as much notice as possible of any possible interruptions to traffic flow.”
Salter said the traffic situation was handled well by university officials and he feels grateful no injuries resulted from the fire.
“Campus Services and the MSU Police Department did a marvelous job in managing what could have been a significant disruption in the early morning hours,” Salter said. “Certainly, the university is sympathetic to our neighbors at Campus Book Mart and glad that there were no injuries.”