After surviving last summer’s wildfires, the Southside community of Grassy Plains on Nov. 7 faced the loss of a longstanding store and restaurant on Keefes Landing Road.
The fire that broke out at the Grassy Plains Store in the morning burned the building to the ground.
An apartment above the store was also destroyed, Axel Orr, a member of the Southside Volunteer Fire Department told Lakes District News.
There were no reports of injuries.
An unconfirmed report suggests the cause of the fire was an unattended deep fryer.
The Grassy Plains Store was owned by Gary and Faith Martin and though the financial losses caused by the fire were not known, “they lost part of their livelihood,” Orr said.
“It was a restaurant that served a lot of people. There was also a family living in an apartment above the store. They lost all their stuff.”
The fire department received the call about the fire around 8:20 a.m., and three volunteer firefighters, including Orr, and several members of the community joined the effort to extinguish the blaze.
The Grassy Plains Store had been operating for at least 50 years.
