Fire destroys convenience store

Jan. 03--MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- A New Year's Eve fire Saturday night burned a convenience store to the ground in Baldwin County.

Fortunately, there were no injuries.

The cause of the blaze that destroyed the J&P Food Store at 2610 Irwinton Road near Milledgeville, still had not been determined as of Tuesday.

"We're still investigating the cause of the fire," said Baldwin County Fire Rescue Chief Troy Reynolds during a Tuesday morning telephone interview with The Union-Recorder. "Right now, it's still undetermined."

Reynolds said he and other fire officials went back to the scene Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to determine a possible cause for the fire.

The business, owned by Chetam Patel, closed at 9 p.m. Saturday.

A little more than an hour later, the store was ablaze.

"Brent Arnold, one of our off-duty firefighters happened to be going home out in the Coopers area and saw the store on fire a little after 10 p.m.," Reynolds said.

Arnold immediately called for help.

"By the time he saw the fire, flames had already vented the rear rooftop of the business," Reynolds said.

Firefighters and trucks arrived a few minutes later.

"We made entry into the building with an attack team, but we had to call them back out after the fire rapidly spread and it became too dangerous for anyone to be inside," Reynolds said.

All firefighters could do at that time was fight the blaze defensively, he said.

The county's ladder truck also was put into action.

A total of 16 staff and volunteer firefighters fought intense flames for about an hour before they were able to bring the fire at the store under control.

Firefighters were also busy trying to keep a mobile home next to the store from catching fire.

The fire chief said firefighters used a water curtain to keep the mobile home safe.

Firefighters also quickly removed several bottles of propane gas located on the outside of the store building for safety purposes.

Reynolds said firefighters stayed at the scene putting out hotspots and involved in a variety of cleanup operations until 2 a.m. New Year's Day.

The storeowner had fire insurance, according to Reynolds.

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