Employees of Ft. Payne Public Works got their first look on Saturday after a devastating fire ravaged the historic building.

"It wasn't good," employee Ronnie Hairen said.

If you look inside, you can see puddles on the floor, insulation on the ground, and walls that used to be white now covered in black soot. People who walk by the building can even smell the smoke lingering from last night's fire.

But, that won't stop the city's public works employees from serving their community. "I want to assure them that its not going to affect what we do for the community, and we will still operate it as usual," the public works supervisor Tim Williams said.

"It's going to be different, but we're going to make it," Hairen added.

People in the community were also heartsick to see the ruins.

"It's sickening, very sickening. I just can't believe it burned," Donald Gann said.

Gann was one of the people who stopped by to look at the damage. He says the fire was a sad situation because of the building's history. The building used to be a National Army Reserve, and Gann used to work there back when he was in high school.

"I hate to see this thing burn down. I didn't think it would," Gann said.

But, workers say they'll do their best to restore the building back to its former glory.

"There's a lot of background here, so we are going to try our best to save the most we can. That's for sure," Hairen said.

Ft. Payne Public Works employees will return to work Monday. They say they're all thankful for all the firefighters work and that nobody got hurt.

The fire marshal will investigate on Monday to figure out the cause of the fire.