Flames shot out from a building on North Main Street in Castile late Tuesday afternoon, about 15 hours after firefighters from 24 fire companies first responded to the scene.

Sheriff Farris Heimann of Wyoming County says investigators from his office and the state continue working to find the cause of this fire.

“It’s slow-going; it’s a dangerous situation. We’ve had to wait for some hot spots to be put out," Heimann said.

Local leaders says the building will have to be demolished. It housed town and village offices, the local courts, Lorraine’s restaurant, and a second-floor apartment where firefighters believe the fire started.

Investigators do not know if the woman who lived in the apartment was inside at the time. She has not been accounted for.

“We have not located the owner and that’s part of the ongoing investigation. We don’t have anything else to say," Heimann said.

The town supervisor and village mayor say their thoughts and prayers are with the missing woman’s family.

“It’s a close-knit community. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody in this town are related in one way," said Stephen Tarbell, town supervisor.

The town and village remain in a state of emergency, because their governments couldn’t operate after the fire. The Bank of Castile has offered them two offices - one for the town and one for the village - free of charge until they can get a new building.

Both the village and the town hope to be back up and running Thursday morning. Castile court will be setting up in the fire hall as of October 15th.

Since the fire started in the center of Castile, people have stopped and stared. The building is a piece of history in the town and village, dating back to 1892; now gutted by fire.

“Living in the community, you go to the bank, you go to the store or whatever when you’re walking up the street, I always noticed how nice that looked,” said Brian Gross.

Gross has lived in Castile pretty much his entire life. He lives just a couple doors down from the fire.

“I’m 56, and my mother and father, we lived here in the community, and it used to be called Marian and I’s, and I was Irene, who was a friend of my mothers, and I used to go there, we’d eat, then we used to go upstairs to that apartment, and then there was an organ there. It was Irene’s daughters, and that’s where I learned to play organ,” he said.

Bruce Carney owns the local grocery store. He took 100 pictures of the fire before sunrise.

“Got here about 2:30 this morning, fire was pretty well engulfed at this time. Lot of great firemen showing up, I don’t know how many companies,” said Carney.

“I’ve been here all my life. Just turned 52, so it’s a great place to be, small town living, everybody comes to help in a situation like this. I just come right up out of bed, and had to come up. It was just something to see,” said Donna Sandford.