Nearly half of the building is damaged; shop currently closed

JOHANNESBURG -- A fire investigation is underway into what sparked a blaze at an Otsego County market.

The fire started around 2:45 p.m. Saturday at the Busy Bee Market in Johannesburg.

"I smelled something burning and I asked the employee in the back what was burning and she told me that she thought maybe there was something burning in the back room," said Nicole Freeman, an employee of Busy Bee working at the time of the fire.

After checking the backroom a fire was discovered to be flaring near the water heater. A customer in the store who is also an EMT immediately got in touch with central dispatch. Several minutes later by the time fire crews arrived, heavy smoke was billowing out the tops of each end of the building.

While the exact cause is yet to have been determined it is now believed to be connected with the water heater in the back room.

"It's just a small room back there where they store their bottles of pop and stuff and it started by the water heater and went up the wall and followed the vent pipe up through the ceiling," said Chief Ron Koronska of the Johannesburg Fire Department.

While the bulk of the building is salvageable, the upper portion of the shop will need extensive repairs. In addition, everything else inside will have to be thrown away.

Employees are already getting back to work to try to get the store re-opened though it will likely take some extended amount of time. While the owner of the market is currently out-of-state, employees say they're taking the situation on a day-to-day basis.

The fire is also likely to have an impact on its shoppers because for some Busy Bee is not just a market, it's the only market around.

"It's going to impact the community," Koronska said. "With it being a local store for gasoline, we used it for gasoline for the fire trucks also."

"Everyone locally depended on Linda (owner) for a lot of stuff and she sells meat here," Freeman said. "A lot of people did their grocery shopping here so I think it's going to have quite an impact."

Patrons will now have to travel to Vienna Township or Gaylord for grocery-related shopping.

7&4 News is told by employees the business was insured. The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Crews from the Otsego County Fire Department along with OC EMS/Rescue assisted at the scene. Several near by businesses were also evacuated during the fire as a precaution while troopers from the Michigan State Police and deputies from the Otsego County Sheriff's Office closed near-by roadways and re-routed traffic.