C.N. Brown, owner of the store, plans to rebuild.
WILTON – A fast moving fire ripped through The Big Apple storage room late Monday destroying the building and contents inside. Firefighters were able to hold the fire back from reaching propane tanks attached to the building and gas pumps about 30 feet away.
C.N. Brown spokesman John Pinto said the company would rebuild.
State fire investigators and Wilton firefighters were back on the scene Tuesday morning looking for clues to determine the cause of the blaze at the routes 2 and 4 convenience store.
Motorists did double takes as they drove by the store Tuesday and looked at the devastation.
Nearby neighbors Connie and Alec Bedard watched as an excavator from Maillet Excavation tore the metal roof off the building.
“I was watching television and went to the kitchen to get a drink of water,” Connie Bedard said, “and I looked out the window and I see the fire and said ‘Oh my God the garage is on fire.’ That scared me. That’s too close when you got gas pumps.”
No sooner had she turned when the police scanner sounded alerting firefighters of a fire at The Big Apple, which was formerly a garage and gas station a decade ago.
“This is a shame,” Bedard said. “We got our gas here. I just filled up yesterday.”
State fire investigator Dan Roy said the fire was reported at 10:54 p.m. by clerk Carl Good from the 24-hour store.
Good and another clerk were in the store when they smelled smoke and went to investigate and noticed heavy smoke in the storage room, Roy said. Both clerks were able to get out without injury, he said.
Wilton Fire Chief Sonny Dunham said he was the first on the scene and saw that the whole storage room section of the store was totally engulfed in flames.
Smoke was coming out the doors and eves of the main section of the store, he said.
About 50 firefighters from East Dixfield, Farmington, Jay and Wilton fought the blaze in 5 degree weather, Dunham said. The frigid temperatures caused air packs and hoses to freeze, he said.
Firefighters made their way into the main part of the store and doused the fire near the gas and propane tanks, Dunham said.
Numerous 20-pound propane tanks and two 200-pound propane tanks were attached to the building, he said.
“We were able to keep the fire away,” he said.
Wilton firefighters were just running out of water in Engine 7 when mutual aid arrived, Dunham said.
“We had plenty of water after that,” he added.
Dunham said he called in investigators from the Fire Marshal’s Office right away to help firefighters determine the cause because of the extent of damage to a business.
Pinto said C.N. Brown plans to temporarily transfer the eight to 10 employees that work at the Wilton store to Big Apples in other towns.
“Thank goodness nobody was hurt,” Pinto said. “Were’ going to come back bigger, better and stronger.”
Monday night’s fire was the third major fire in less than a week in Franklin County. A man died in a fatal blaze last Wednesday in Farmington and a refurbished farmhouse and barn burned to the ground Saturday in Wilton.
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