For 50 years restaurants, caterers, church groups and ambitious mothers planning large celebrations have shopped for the things they needed at the Orson H. Gygi Co.
It's a good bet that more pieces of apple pie and wedding cake have been nibbled off paper plates from the wholesale restaurant goods supplier than from any other supplier in the valley.But at 2 a.m. Saturday, a four-alarm fire raged through the family-owned business at 3500 S. 300 West, destroying the building and putting a temporary end to Gygi's, which is named for its founder.
More than 65 firefighters with three ladder trucks and 12 engines battled the blaze for better than two hours before calling the blaze "under control," Salt Lake County Capt. David Lehnhof said. At the peak of the fight, crews were pouring more than 10,000 gallons of water per minute on the fire, he said. At 11 a.m. Saturday fire crews were still dousing hot spots, Lehnhof said.
Firefighters tried to enter the 20,000 square-foot retail building and warehouse from doors on the front and south sides but retreated after about 20 minutes because the fire was too strong to be extinguished from inside the building, Salt Lake County Fire Capt. Robin Pilcher said. The store's roof began to cave in only a few minutes after firefighters exited the building, he said.
No one was injured in the fire, nor has a cause been determined. Salt Lake County Fire investigators and an arson investigator from the bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms will arrive Monday to assist, Capt. Bill Brass said.
Some suspicious circumstances surround the fire. A man left the area right after the building went up in flames, one witness reported. When firefighters first arrived, a door that should've been locked was open. But authorities aren't going to jump to any conclusions until the investigators look into the matter.
"We've heard a lot of conflicting stories," Brass said. "We're waiting until (the investigators) figure out what happened."
Salt Lake County is also calling in a national fire response team to assist in the investigation, Lehnhof said.
Orson H. Gygi started the family business some 50 years ago in a storefront near 2800 S. State, said his grandson, Brad McDonald, who is now the store's general manager. The store was moved to its present location about 45 years ago. All of Gygi's children and most of his grandchildren did much of their growing up inside the store.
"The biggest memory I have is of Grandad running the business," said McDonald."He had a desk right there in the center of the store, and he would greet customers as they came in."
Gygi's welcoming personality and innovative ideas - he was the first to bring soft-serve ice cream machines to the Salt Lake Valley - resulted in many satisfied and loyal customers, McDonald said.
"We've got customers who have been with us 40 years or more," he said, adding that his grandfather died about 15 years ago. "We've tried to maintain that."
That's why McDonald was working his cell phone Saturday, ordering a temporary office trailer, inquiring about warehouse space and arranging for new phone lines and computers. All but two weeks' worth of the company's records are stored on backup computer disks, McDonald said.
"As far as I'm concerned, the business is the employees and the customers and that's still intact. This was only the place where we housed the inventory," McDonald said."We'll be up an running again on Monday."
A few remnants of the 65,000 piece store inventory - mostly some charred pots and pans and some shopping carts - could be seen strewn among the rubble of burned beams and broken glass at the front of the building, Saturday.
Firefighters said a lake of Coca-Cola was floating in the parking lot near the rear of the building.
"I think the loss is probably about $2.5 million," McDonald said.
Among the sentimental possessions lost in the fire was Orson H. Gygi's wooden cane, which he used in the later years of his life.
"He was kind of famous for sort of shaking and waving it at people when he talked. So we hung it up in the store as a reminder of him," McDonald said.
Emotionally, the loss is immeasurable for the family and for employees like Clifford Pitts, who has worked at Gygi for more than 20 years.
It was Pitts' first job right out of high school. Today, he manages the business's warehouse.
"A lot of memories were lost there today. It's devastating," said Pitts, who learned of the fire when he showed up for work Saturday at 8 a.m. "They consider me family, they told me that today. I've seen all the grandkids grow up. We have some customers that have been there as long as I have. It's like losing an old friend."