Officials: Putney fire 'suspicious'
Second blaze in 18 months destroys store
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Little remained of the Putney General Store on Monday after a fire broke out the night before. Kevin O’Connor / Rutland Herald |
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: November 3, 2009
PUTNEY — The second fire was the cruelest.
The historic Putney General Store, which had barely survived a serious fire in May 2008, succumbed to another late-night blaze Sunday. Investigators called the fire suspicious.
The store, the oldest operating general store in Vermont, dating back to 1796, collapsed into a pile of charred, centuries-old hand-hewn beams and a new slate roof, after more than 100 firefighters from surrounding communities couldn't catch up with the raging, runaway fire.
Fire investigators said the four-alarm fire was suspicious, given the fact that the building was only a partially restored shell. It was boarded and locked up, with no heat or electricity, according to Putney Fire Chief Tom Goddard.
People drove by the scene on their way to work Monday morning; they stared and then looked away, many with tears in their eyes.
The fire left a giant gap and a psychic hole in the center of Putney, a southern Vermont town known for its independent politics and numerous private schools. Villagers bought everything from beer to nails at the store, which sat at the crossroads of Route 5 and Kimball Hill.
The community had rallied behind the Putney Historical Society last year, when the society first announced plans to buy the burned-out shell and rebuild the store and maintain the village's vitality.
The fire chief said the first calls came via 911 at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday and firefighters were on the scene within six minutes.
But he said the fire was already raging out of control and flames were already coming through the roof. By 11:30 p.m., the building had collapsed on itself and firefighters turned their attention to the neighboring building on Kimball Hill, which houses the Sojourns jewelry store and three apartments.
Everyone escaped their apartments while smoke was seeping into the building, but Goddard said firefighters had to spend a lot of time Sunday night searching through the building, making sure all the people were out.
Goddard was working with several Vermont State Police fire investigators and the Windham County Sheriff's Department Monday to determine the source and location of the fire. "We're going to look at some videos on YouTube and photos on Facebook," the chief said.
"Obviously, I can say without any hesitation that the loss of the general store again is a huge devastation for the entire town," said Goddard. "The fire is considered suspicious."
The cause of the first fire was undetermined, Goddard said, although it was not considered suspicious. The December 2001 fire at the neighboring building was not suspicious either, he said.
Lyssa Papazian, who spearheaded the effort of the Putney Historical Society, said she was in shock Monday morning, hours after watching 18 months of work come to destruction.
"By the time I got here, it was an inferno," she said. "Sparks were shooting way up in the sky. It was scary."
Papazian said the historical society was within $150,000 to $160,000 of raising the final $500,000 needed to complete the restoration and had a letter of intent with the Lisai family of Bellows Falls to operate the store, starting next spring. The Lisais operate popular community markets in Bellows Falls and Chester. The historical society stepped in when the former owner said he couldn't afford to rebuild.
"I'm pretty shocked," she said.
Papazian said members of the society were at the store on Halloween Saturday night, giving out candy to trick-or-treaters.
"We were giving out candy, we want to keep being part of village life," Papazian said.
The new slate roof was completed six weeks ago, she said.
The town had received a $211,000 federal grant to help restore the building and do structural repairs, including the new slate roof.
The town hasn't actually received the grant money yet, according to Town Manager Chris Ryan, although the money has already been spent on the roof.
Papazian said in the first fire, the store's sprinkler system helped keep the fire from destroying the heavy timbered building, she said. The historical society hadn't yet installed a sprinkler system in the rebuilt building, she said.
"We had to raise the money," she said.
The Putney General Store was scheduled to reopen in May 2010, on the second anniversary of the first fire, Papazian said.
Neil Madow, owner of 10 Kimball Hill, had just recently completed repairs to his building from the 2008 fire, and had survived a fire in his own building five years ago.
Madow said that all his tenants got out safely, "walking out the front door," but the damage to the building was worse than it looked from the sidewalk.
Whether he repairs the building a third time will be up to his bank and his insurance agency, he said.
Chris Sagosz, a student at Landmark College in Putney, was visiting a fellow student in his top-floor apartment in the building. They both had on headphones and playing music, not hearing any alarms.
"We felt vibrations … and looked out the window and saw people down there and the fire and they told us to get out," said Sagosz. "I grabbed my car and peeled out," he said.
Sagosz left his laptop computer behind in his friend's apartment.
Two of Madow's tenants, Llora Kressmann and John Mozley, said they were asleep in bed when they heard the fire alarms go off. Smoke started seeping up the floorboards of their apartment.
"We heard noises, and in retrospect, it was the fire," said Mozley, a reading teacher at Kurn Hattin School.
"We thought someone was coming into our apartment," said Kressmann, a student teacher. Two minutes longer and "it could have been very different," Mozley said.
Firefighters retrieved the couple's Apple laptop and monitor, although the pair held little hope the electronics escaped unscathed.
"We lost everything," Mozley said. The couple has been taken in by friends, they said. They moved into the building next to the store, thinking they had found a safe place to live.
"We didn't think it could possibly burn again," she said.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com