LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — A family-owned grocery store and community staple in one part of Lancaster County was destroyed by a fire early Thursday morning.
“This will wind up being a multi-million dollar fire loss,” said Randall Gockley, public information officer for Lincoln Fire Company Station 16 in Ephrata.
Flames broke out inside Martin’s Country Market in Ephrata Township just before 4:00 a.m.
An employee had just shown up for their shift, smelled smoke, and called 911.
“My initial reaction was it can’t be happening to us but my initial reaction[also] was I want everyone out of the building,” said Nevin Martin, president of Martin’s Country Market. “If everyone is okay, everything will be okay moving forward.”
“You could see the smoke, you could smell it as soon as you walked out our door,” said Amanda Sarver, who lives right by the store. “You could see it for miles, I don’t know how far it went.”
About 200 firefighters battled the flames for hours, finally getting them under control around 10:30 a.m.
Along with Martin’s Country Market, Martin Furniture and Mattress is located in the same building. The two businesses are run by different Martin families.
The family that runs the grocery store owns the entire building.
Approximately 120 people are employed at Martin’s Country Market.
A fire wall between the two businesses helped to limit the damage at the furniture store. There was smoke and water damage there, and most, if not all, of the store’s inventory will be lost, according to Gockley.
The market is a total loss.
“Certainly it’s saddening being here since 1988, to be closed indefinitely it’s heartbreaking for the Martin family and at this point we want to take care of our employees and make sure they and their families are okay,” said Jay Martin, CEO of Martin’s Country Market.
“We’re here probably daily so it’s shocking,” said Sarver. “A lot of family come here, [you think about] all the employees that don’t have a job at this point.”
The outside of the building was just remodeled in 2023, according to the Martin family. The inside of the market was remodeled in 2013.
Gockley told FOX43 the flames got into the rubber-made roof, which helped to fuel the flames. He also said there were no sprinklers inside the market.
“I would believe today if it would, which it will have to be totally reconstructed, it would have to have sprinklers,” said Gockley. “But the building is not out of regulation, they weren’t required at the time of construction.”
“The original building was built in the eighties, there’s been numerous upgrades since then but everything would have been built to code, safety as much as we could, to the best of our knowledge,” added Jay Martin. “What started the fire at this point, we don’t know.”
Firefighters say at this point nothing seems suspicious, but the cause remains under investigation with the Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal.
The Martin family vows to rebuild but there is no timeline for when the store could reopen.
“We have a large customer support in this community that we want to continue be able to meet that need in the future but it’s obvious as of today we cannot,” said Nevin Martin.