Five businesses are destroyed and the smell of smoke is lingering in downtown Bridgewater, N.S. after a fire ripped through two buildings overnight.

Bridgewater Fire Chief Michael Nauss says crews responded to the former Cleve’s building at 535 King Street around 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

“When we arrived, we noticed the building was fully involved on the main floor,” Nauss told CTV News.

Officials believe the fire originated in the former Cleve’s building and quickly spread to the adjacent building.

Several fire departments battled the blaze, bringing it under control around 2 a.m. However, they continued to extinguish hot spots until around 9 a.m. Monday.

Together, the two buildings house five businesses – Keller Williams Select Realty, a Rogers outlet, the Green Way marijuana dispensary, Geeky Robar’s Computer Services and Big Daddy’s Wholesale, and Artistic Issues tattoo shop.

Nauss says the buildings sustained heavy fire damage and are a “total loss.” He estimates the old wooden-frame buildings are at least 120 years old.

An adjacent brick building, which houses Lanna Thai Kitchen, sustained smoke and water damage. Nauss expects the restaurant will be able to reopen in a few weeks.

“You know it isn't good when it is on King Street because of the tightness of the buildings and the structures, but also not good when sirens are going for hours,” says Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell.

Judith Baron lives across the street and was alarmed to see fire coming from the buildings.

“It started just like smoke and then it got black and then poof, you seen the flames,” says Baron. 

Three people living above the stores managed to get out safely.

“It was scary,” Baron says. “Luckily no one was killed because it was very intense. I could feel the heat.”

A $5 million-revitalization project was finished along the street four months ago. The hope was to attract more people to this business district to shop.

Mitchell considers this fire a major setback, but is confident the businesses will build again.

“This is the wrong kind of attraction now. We've got a lot of people coming down to see, but we are Bridgewater. We'll get past it,” he says.

Fire investigators think they know where the fire started, but are working to confirm their beliefs.

"We haven't gone in to do a major investigation as of right now," says Nauss.

Police are helping with the investigation to determine whether there was any suspicious activity leading up to the flames.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kelland Sundahl.