Fire Destroys Monroe County Business

"I still have inventory down there. My credit card machine is fried. My cash register fried, and the phone lines don't work," says Jim Fallenstein.

Fallenstein is the owner of Mountain Feed Store in Jackson Township. He was woken up just after 4am with news that his feed store, which sells all types of animal food, was on fire.

"I got dressed and came over here. By the time I got here it was twenty-five after four, and it was almost completely on the ground, " he says.

While the fire caused the roof to collapse, fire crews had to knock down the store's front wall to gain access to hot spots. The feed store is one of several buildings on Fallenstein's property. At one point, flames reached a nearby barn filled with hay.

"It actually just started on the barn. On the big barn. When crews arrived on scene we knocked it out so it didn't get into this big barn, " says Chief Lester Wolcott.

"That was a major concern, and they were able to get that out and secure the other building that is down there also," says Fallenstein.

With his store now destroyed, the owner of course is very upset and overwhelmed with emotions, but he says his top priority right now is getting the store back open for his customers.

"I'm flabbergasted. I just don't know where to start. I am going to reopen, going to get this thing back open. I'm just trying to figure out what's the smartest thing to do and the sequence to do it in," says Fallenstein.