Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009

Bi-Lo in Northeast Richland reopens following fire

A fire at the Super Bi-Lo in Northeast Richland’s Village at Sandhill shut the store down for about four hours Saturday.

The fire, which was contained to a corner of the stock room, has been ruled accidental, said Columbia Deputy Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins. He said it started from the heat caused by a floor buffer charger that was plugged into an extension cord.

The fire caused $185,000 worth of damage, mainly to food items and equipment in the stock room, Jenkins said.

An undetermined amount of customers and employees were in the store when the fire broke out around 9:30 a.m., Jenkins said.

They were immediately evacuated, and 911 was called. Firefighters were on the scene within seven minutes, Jenkins said, but a sprinkler system already had extinguished the fire.

“We didn’t have to apply any water,” he said. “It could have been a lot worse if it had not been for the sprinkler system.”

Five fire trucks from the City of Columbia and Richland County responded to the scene. The Richland County Fire Marshall’s office investigated, Jenkins said.

He said the damage was caused by fire, smoke and water and was contained to the stock room. Sprinklers in the public shopping areas did not activate. The store reopened around 1 p.m., according to a woman who answered the phone at the store but declined to identify herself.

Jenkins said by early afternoon, shoppers could not tell there had been a fire other than an occasional whiff of smoke.

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