WILLOW CREEK — A grease fire in the kitchen of the Willow Creek General Store caused extensive smoke damage on the morning of March 15, closing the town’s oldest retail business for six weeks.
The fire began at approximately 4:30 AM, when a grease buildup on the back of the kitchen range ignited. Seamus O’Donnell, who lives in the apartment above the store, was awakened by the smell of smoke and phoned the fire department.
“This is the second time in my life I’ve been scared by fire in this building,” said O’Donnell, now 72. “The first was seventy years ago, when I was a boy in Ireland and we lost two houses on our street. I thought I knew what it looked like. But I had forgotten.”
The Willow Creek Volunteer Fire Department, under the direction of its new chief, Dale Fournier Sr., arrived within eight minutes and contained the blaze before it reached the main retail floor. Damage was limited to the kitchen, the rear storage area, and the building’s original cedar shake roof, which was removed to allow ventilation.
“The main floor is intact,” Fournier reported. “There’s smoke damage — the whole place will need to be aired out and repainted — but the inventory is safe, and the structure is sound.”
The store closed immediately. Within 48 hours, a community fund drive organized by the Willow Creek Congregational Church had raised $1,200 — enough to cover the insurance deductible and the cost of a new roof.
“We will rebuild,” O’Donnell announced from the front step of the store, smoke-stained but standing. “This store opened in 1923, and I intend to see it open for the centennial.”
The store reopened on June 1 with a new roof, a fresh coat of white paint, and a new sign commissioned from Ray Thibodeau’s father, who carved it from a single plank of red oak. The Gazette ran a front-page photograph of O’Donnell cutting the ribbon with a pair of oversized shears.