Columbia firefighters quickly contained a fire at the Dollar General located at 650 U.S. 98 Thursday afternoon.
The Columbia Fire Department was dispatched to a report of a structure fire at the store around 2:30 p.m. Two engines and a rescue truck responded to the scene and arrived to find flames in the storage room on the southeast corner of the building. Firefighters reported a “working fire” when they entered the building.
Firefighters removed smoking carts of merchandise from the storage room as they battled the blaze, which was quickly knocked down.
The Columbia Police Department and Marion County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene, keeping traffic away from the store as it was evacuated. Firefighters used fans remove smoke from the building.
CFD Chief Jeff McKenzie said at the scene that firefighters were looking into the cause.
“The area of origin is known,” he said. “The exact point of origin is not known. The cause as of now is undetermined.”
McKenzie said that firefighters had to make some quick decisions as they entered the store.
“It was going pretty good when we arrived,” he said. “We went in and closed the doors as a fire break and fought the fire from the storage room side so as not to damage anything in the store. We contained it to the store room. We had gone in through the front door, but opened the side doors and fought it from this side.”
Firefighters cleared the scene shortly after 4 p.m. There was no official word on how long the store would be closed from Dollar General as of press time.
Pictured Above: Columbia firefighters extinguish one of the racks of merchandise that was burning at the Dollar General. | Photo by Mark Rogers
