Wal-Mart back open after fire

For the second time in a week, customers and employees were ordered out of Orangeburg’s biggest retailer when emergency personnel were dispatched to the North Road store again, this time on Thursday evening.

"There is not a fire hazard out there at this point," Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Chief Wendell Davis said Friday morning. "It was an isolated incident, and it is under control."

At about 9:59 p.m. two companies of firefighters were dispatched when a fire erupted in the deli section of the store. Investigators say an oven had built up grease that ignited.

"That’s what happened here, a build-up of oil that they use to cook," Davis said.

The fire was extinguished in about 25 minutes, according to an ODPS fire report. The only injuries were to deli products in the immediate area.

Davis added that the fire could have been worse save for a volunteer firefighter on the scene at the time of the incident.

"There was a volunteer fireman who we’re unable to identify at this time who made an initial attack with a dry-powder extinguisher," Davis said. "He was able to hold it at bay until we were able to get there."

Firefighters recommended the store remain closed after the fire was under control until smoke levels could be reduced.

The North Road business remained closed much of Friday morning as employees removed damaged items from shelves and cleared any remaining smoke. Doors were reopened to the public about 11:15 a.m. Friday.

"We might be a lot lighter in stock, but we’re open," manager Peggy Nemith said.

Items the store was forced to dispose of because of smoke contamination were mostly food-related, Nemith said.

It’s been a tough week to be Wal-Mart.

On Tuesday, county deputies were called in after store employees unloading a tractor-trailer found a package bearing the note, "Wal-Mart will end at 7 p.m." SLED bomb teams arrived and remotely detonated what turned out to be a box of hangers.

Davis said Thursday’s fire is not connected to any threats or bomb scares.

"It’s not related at all," he said.

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.