PUTNEY — At 9:52 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, the call came in to the Putney Fire Department: the Putney General Store was ablaze.
“When the first two engines got here we had fire showing from the third floor end of the building as well as along the peak of the rooftop," Chief Tom Goddard said. "There's heavy water damage to the second floor and the first floor.”
Video of the blaze and the demolition process have been posted to the Internet. Watching the 1769 building, owned by Erhan Oge and Tugce Okumus, being cut apart on YouTube is a somber activity for a Putney resident. A general merchandise store has existed for 165 years - possibly the longest continuous operation of a general store in the state, up until the recent fire - at the site in the heart of the town center, at Main Street and Kimball Hill.
At the turn of the century the store was A.M. Corser's, and later S.L. Davis General Merchandise. The Fairchild family bought it in 1974 and remade it into a two-story operation, essentially building it into the landmark known as the Putney General Store, an icon that has long represented Vermont in images and advertisements. Now, it's a damaged, boarded-up building, waiting for reconstruction, pending the owners' decisions and those of their insurer, Arcadia Insurance Co.
Oge expected the insurance “may cover about half the inventory,” and as for the building, he had no idea. He thought that in a few weeks, they'd get estimates. “I'd like to rebuild,” he said, “but I know it's going to suck a lot of money.”
Oge said there was still no explanation for the fire; Goddard said it was “not suspicious.” In a turn of bad luck, a sprinkler system was recently installed, but not in the attic where the fire apparently started. Mitnik observed there was “definitely old wiring in the building."
Outpouring of support
In a post on the town Web site iPutney.com, Town Manager Chris Ryan reported “a great outpouring of volunteers, both with hands-on construction abilities as well as folks willing to lend a hand with finding appropriate grants and other tasks."
"It seems that there is great community support for the owners in their desire to rebuild, with talk of fundraisers to help the cause, if necessary,” Ryan wrote.
Oge noted, “I love the building; that's why I bought it.” He later added, “it doesn't matter who owns it-Putney needs that store.”
Even before the fire, running the business has not been easy. Oge noted that between the gas prices and bad winters, with little snow and few tourists, many businesses have had a hard time.
“It's hard when there's a Price Chopper, a Hannaford, and a Wal-Mart,” said Dan Mitnik, who sold the business a little over two years ago to Oge and Okumus, who also run Putney Village Pizza.
“I hope the General Store comes back," Mitnik said. "It's certainly the center of Putney - a cultural and social hub.”