Within minutes the water rose to a foot high throughout the 5,000-square-foot store.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

OXFORD – The owners of a video store in Oxford are counting their blessings after a water main break flooded their shop Friday.

Margaret and Jeff Kennedy of Raymond hope to reopen K & K Reel Vision Video, located in the Oxford Shopping Plaza, within a couple of weeks, they said Monday.

Temperatures hovered just above zero at 10:30 a.m. Friday when a store clerk heard a loud noise in the back of the store. She opened the door, and the water from a broken six-inch main that serves the shopping center started gushing in.

The main runs from Pottle Road and has a junction enclosed in a box behind the video store.

Within minutes the water rose to a foot high throughout the 5,000-square-foot store, the Kennedys said. The water destroyed about 500 videos and DVDs that were on the bottom shelves.

The shocked clerk, who was drenched up to her knees with the first onslaught of water, opened the front door to let the water out.

A river of water carrying floating cardboard movie covers flowed out, running down the parking lot to Route 26, the Kennedys said.

Margaret Kennedy said she didn’t know which movies were affected, but said it wouldn’t surprise her if “A River Runs Through It” was one of them.

“The Oxford Fire Department was unbelievable,” said a grateful Jeff Kennedy, who joined his wife at the store shortly after hearing about the break. “They came in and were right on top of it. They even helped retrieve the covers.”

“The cardboard covers were moving down the driveway at a rather rapid rate,” said fire Lt. Shawn Cordwell.

About 10 firefighters with an engine and a ladder truck, along with Oxford Ambulance, responded to the scene, Cordwell said.

The store clerk was checked over for hypothermia, but she did not require treatment. “She went over to Fashion Bug and bought some more clothes,” said Margaret Kennedy.

The Mechanic Falls Fire Department also responded as part of mutual aid. Cordwell said the water district shut off the water to the shopping center, owned by Robert Bahre. Cordwell said the adjacent business, Books ‘n Things, sustained some carpet damage.

The Kennedys also own K & K Reel Vision Video Stores in Cornish, Naples, Raymond and Gray and have run the Oxford store for seven years.

It’s too early to tell how many shelves will have to be replaced, or how long it will take to replace the floor, the Kennedys said. They insure their business property and equipment, and Bahre has insurance on the physical space.

The experience was a first for the Kennedys, who live in Raymond and are independent video distributors. “We hope our customers will be patient, because we’ll be back up and running as soon as possible,” Margaret Kennedy said.