Family Dollar lost to fire; investigation continues

March 27--Investigation into a weekend fire that destroyed the South Main Family Dollar retail outlet on Saturday was still continuing, a spokesman with the Hope Fire Department confirmed on Tuesday.

"Family Dollar has its own investigator out of Memphis, and the fire scene now belongs to them. There should be a report soon, but right now, the scene is still under investigation," the HFD spokesman said.

In a brief statement late Tuesday afternoon, Kayleigh M. Painter, who is Dollar Tree's manager of Investor and Media Relations at its headquarters in Chesapeake, VA, said "We are thankful that no customers or associates were injured as a result of this incident. Our first priority has been relocating our associates to work at other Family Dollar locations. We do not have a timetable for reopening at this time."

Dollar Tree is the corporate parent of Family Dollar stores.

The Hope Fire Dept. had received a 911-call out of Family Dollar on Saturday, March 24 at 9:20 a.m. when a Family Dollar employee there reported smoke in the building, and fire trucks were already on the scene at approximately 9:21 a.m.

"Fire crews were there well over four hours, until about 2:07 that afternoon. The building and the merchandise inside were a total loss," the HFD spokesman said.

No injuries were reported to either customers, employees or fire personnel, and everyone was evacuated safely, according to the HFD spokesman.

The fire at the retail outlet did present special challenges to fire personnel unlike a typical house fire, due to aisles of potentially flammable items like clothing and hair spray.

"There were instances where the heat exploded some of those hair spray containers, but we got everyone cleared out of there," the spokesman said.

North of Family Dollar was the Allcare Pharmacy, while south were a couple of residential structures, but neither were in significant danger of the blaze spreading.

"The house was right there, but the wind was blowing the opposite direction, so it was not in any real danger," the spokesman said.

Family Dollar was acquired by Dollar Tree in a merger agreement in July 2015. According to its investor profile, "Dollar Tree, a Fortune 500 Company, now operates more than 13,600 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces. Stores operate under the brands of Dollar Tree, Dollar Tree Canada, Deals and Family Dollar."

The investor profile also states that "Dollar Tree is the nation's leading operator

of fixed price point stores, selling everything for $1 or less, and Family Dollar is a leading national operator of multi-price point stores providing value conscious consumers with a selection of competitively priced merchandise in convenient neighborhood stores."

A Dollar Tree store is also in Hope, located at 1301 N Hervey St.

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