After watching a Monday night fire ravage the Allied Development Co. store at the height of the Christmas shopping season, owner Mark McGillis vowed to have his store open again soon - possibly by Saturday.
The two-alarm fire, reported by employees at 7:15 p.m., destroyed the front, west portion of the store at 6400 S. State, but firefighters managed to keep it away from propane tanks and ammunition stockpiled inside. Soon after the fire broke through the roof, flames jumped to a power pole and exploded the transformer in a shower of sparks.Electrical power lines to the store were shut down, which also darkened neighborhoods on either side of the burning store. Scores of people were drawn out of their darkened homes to the street where they watched firefighters battle the blaze.
The fire was contained in two hours. Its cause remained unknown Tuesday as investigators sifted through the damage, but the fire didn't appear suspicious, Murray Fire Chief Wendell Coombs said.
"We may have something later this afternoon, but they might not ever know (the cause) because of the extent of the damage," said Murray Fire Capt. Brent Fullmer.
At least 40 employees and more than 100 customers were inside the store when an employee spotted smoke in the storage area, McGillis said. The building was evacuated and flames quickly engulfed the structure as onlookers formed a crowd across the street. Slowing cars also clogged nearby I-215.
Linda Householder and daughter Jennifer, an emergency medical technician, had finished shopping at Fashion Place Mall and could see the fire from the mall parking lot. The women were at the corner of 6400 South and State Street when a man standing next to them became entangled in a fire hose as firefighters worked to connect it to a hydrant.
Robert Miller, 28, Salt Lake City, tripped over the hose and fell face-forward onto the asphalt, Linda Householder said. The hose tangled around his legs as the fire truck moved forward, unwinding the hose, she said. The metal connector whipped away from the hydrant and struck Miller in the head. He was treated at Cottonwood Hospital and released.
The fire caused no other injuries. McGillis praised his employees for following procedure - they tried to douse the fire with an extinguisher, then evacuated the store without incident.
"The best part about it is there was no injury, no loss of life," he said.
Coombs said the fire had climbed the store walls by the time firefighters entered the building. Crews knocked it down inside the store, but it had spread to the attic, he said. The firefighters cut trenches in the roof and eventually drove it back into the storage area.
Fire damage was contained to the storage warehouse, which held "thousands" of pairs of jeans, Western boots and dry goods items, McGillis said. The rest of the store sustained extensive water damage. More than a foot of water from smoke-activated sprinklers pooled in the retail clothing section of the store.
McGillis estimated the damage at more than $1 million.
Some 50 yards south on State Street, Tom Cowley also watched as the store burned. Cowley came to the site because he has a bond with the store - he operated it for 40 years before selling to McGillis 11/2 years ago - and because he also withstood a fire several years ago at another Allied Development Co. store.
When officers guarding the fire perimeter referred to the Murray store as a shopping "institution," Cowley concurred.
"I had nightmares about this, all the time we owned it," he said. Nowadays, Cowley operates a Christmas tree lot to the east of the structure and maintains an office inside the store.
"I don't suppose our business is too good tonight," he said of the tree lot.
The building, measuring some 60,000 square feet, grew from as many as 15 add-ons, Cowley and Coombs said. It may have been the various remodeling projects that saved the building from further damage, as a concrete wall dividing the storage area and retail store helped stall the progression of the fire, Coombs said.
Store employees and law enforcement officials guarded the damaged store against looters through the night Monday.