By Ben Rodgers
The Jamestown Sun
OAKES, N.D. — No one was injured Tuesday night when a fire destroyed an Oakes, N.D., convenience store, said Randy Burley, Oakes Fire Department chief.
Oakes firefighters arrived at Hwy #1 Fuel & Services, 909 S 7th. St., Oakes, shortly after 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, and were still at the scene at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Burley said.
The fire closed N.D. Highway 1 near Oakes for several hours.
Neighboring fire departments in Ellendale, Gwinner and LaMoure and a water truck from Rutland-Cayuga were also on the scene, he said. Each department had about a dozen firefighters on the scene with Oakes having about two dozen. Two Oakes businesses also sent a pair of cement trucks filled with water.
“We have wonderful neighbors and I have a wonderful bunch of guys here in Oakes,” Burley said.
The other departments were sent home at around 3 a.m. Wednesday and Oakes firefighters stayed on scene, letting some parts of the fire burn out and watching for hotspots and blowing embers, he said.
He said the fire started in a storage Quonset attached to the convenience store. The fire destroyed possessions in the Quonset and the Quonset itself and spread to the store.
The building was a total loss but the underground gasoline storage tanks and gas pumps were not damaged, he said.
“That’s a great feeling,” Burley said about the tanks. “The fact that we lost a business in our small town is a not-so-great feeling.”
Firefighters took a cautious approach with the blaze because of high winds — up to 30 mph — and because the fire was at a service station, he said.
“On a service station fire you definitely handle things differently,” Burley said.
Burley said no cause for the fire had been determined. It is under investigation by the Oakes Fire Department and Fire Marshal Division.
This is the second fire in as many days in Dickey County. The museum at Whitestone Hill Battlefield State Historic Site also caught fire and burned to its stone frame Monday morning.
Dickey County Sheriff Jim Bohannon said the Whitestone fire is still under investigation but he has no leads. No evidence connecting the two fires has been found, he said.
Copyright 2009