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| Troy businesses lost to fire, smoke; probe continues |
By: John Brannon Messenger Staff Reporter
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Posted: Monday, November 2, 2009 9:01 pm
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By JOHN BRANNON Messenger Staff Reporter An investigation into the weekend loss of two major businesses in Troy — E.W. James Supermarket and Dollar General Store — to a fire of unknown origins continues today. Two small businesses within the supermarket — Pizza Pro and Subway — were also destroyed. Lee Ann James of Union City, chief executive officer of E.W. James & Sons Inc., which owned the Troy supermarket, vowed to make a comeback. She said they’re already looking for a building. “We’re working with the mayor. He’s really helped us,” she said. “We think we found a location. We’ll look at it today. It’ll be small but it’ll be better than nothing. Ours was the only grocery store in Troy. “We want to make sure we take care of the community, make sure they have a grocery store while we’re trying to rebuild. We’re going to start rebuilding immediately.” Meanwhile, provisions are being made for the 25 employees who lost their jobs to the fire. “We’ll move them around as best we can, get them taken care of today. Right now the focus is getting a building and getting open again,” Ms. James said. First calls Authorities say the first calls about the fire were received about 7 p.m. Saturday. The battle was fought until about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Ron Powers, investigator for Tennessee Fire Marshal’s office, began his investigation early Sunday as what’s left of the two retail outlets smoldered. The supermarket and Dollar General, which are next to each other and share a common wall, are located in a shopping center on East Harper Street in Troy. The supermarket has a floor space of 13,500 square feet and the Dollar General about 6,500 square feet. A great loss Troy Fire Chief Mark Watson said the E.W. James store was a total loss and Dollar General sustained heavy smoke damage. “It’s such a tremendous dollar loss for Troy,” Watson said. “Fortunately, only five people were injured.” Watson said five people — two employees, three customers — were transported to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union City for treatment of smoke inhalation. Lt. Phillip Green of the Troy Volunteer Fire Department said late Saturday that everyone — employees and customers — were all accounted for. Neither Watson or Green would comment on the cause of the fire, other than, “It’s under investigation.” Eyewitnesses According to eyewitnesses, a fire of suspicious origins began about 7 p.m. Saturday. Troy police officer John Gardner was parked down the street when he was alerted. “I was sitting in my patrol car and a lady pulled up and said she could see smoke coming from the top of the E.W. James building,” Gardner said. “I called the fire department.” Anita Ayers, a clerk in the Little General convenience store located across the street from the shopping center, said someone ran in and said for them to call the fire department, that E.W. James store was on fire. “I looked and saw a blaze, a big blaze, shooting up in back of the grocery store,” she said. Heavy hit Watson and Troy Mayor Jimmie Hart attribute a total loss of about $1.5 million to the Saturday evening fire. Their estimate includes the inventories of the two stores, the loss of 25 jobs at the grocery store and an unknown number at Dollar General and the two small businesses within the grocery store, and the tax revenue the businesses generated. What hurts most, he said, is that because of the fire, Troy has no grocery store now. “It’s hit us in several ways,” he said. “There’s the loss of all those jobs. Plus, we lose the income generated by sales tax. It’s not going to be good on our sales tax revenue, which was holding up good.” Grand opening According to Diane Bell, wife of Troy businessman Earl Bell, in 1975 Flavil Hayes of Troy built the building that houses E.W. James Supermarket and Dollar General. In 1976, Hayes established Hayes Big Star supermarket in part of it. In 1988, Earl Bell bought the building as well as the grocery store from Hayes and established a Food Rite grocery store. In August, Bell sold the grocery store business to E.W. James & Sons Inc. The corporation, based in Union City, has a network of about 38 stores in the Mid-South. A grand opening was held at the Troy store Oct. 1-10. Just sick Sunday morning, the Bells were among several people who stopped by the burned out stores. “I’m sick,” Bell said as he viewed the blown out windows and long streamers of yellow caution tape fluttering in the wind. “We’re just thankful nobody was hurt bad. Many years of work went up in flames. We still own the building, and yes, we’ll build back. “I met with our insurance man this morning. We’ll meet again tomorrow.” Ms. Bell characterized it as “A life’s work gone up in flames.” “But we will be back,” she said. Mutual aid The blaze was battled from about 7:20 p.m. Saturday to about 1 a.m. Sunday, when most of the emergency responders left the scene. Watson said Troy Volunteer Fire Department got a lot of help in fighting the fire, that “this was a fire that no one fire department could handle by itself.” “It was an example of how well area fire departments work together,” he said. “It shows the importance of mutual aid agreements.” Emergency response units that answered a call for assistance from Troy VFD were the fire departments from Union City, Samburg, Hornbeak, Rives, Obion and Newbern. Law enforcement units responding included the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Troy Police Department and Obion County Sheriff’s Department. The Obion Rescue Squad also responded, helping with traffic control. Three helicopters responded to transport victims to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union City. “We certainly appreciate all the departments that responded to this emergency and helped fight the fire,” Watson said. “At the height of the firefighting, we had 46 firefighters on the scene, along with about 50 law enforcement, EMS and rescue squad people. There was a total of 96 emergency responders fighting the fire and doing traffic control and helping out.” “They did an excellent job,” Hart added. “We extend the city’s thanks and appreciation.” Published in The Messenger 11.2.09 |
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