Fire Damages Sioux Falls Food Co-op

The Co-op Natural Foods Store in Sioux Falls suffered a devasting fire early on Sunday.

This from the Argus Leader newspaper account:

Authorities say a Sioux Falls business suffered extensive smoke damage from a fire early Sunday Morning.

Sioux Falls Fire Rescue said the fire was reported at the Natural Food Co-op just after 3 a.m.

The store’s General Manager Molly Langley said smoke and fire had damaged most of the store’s inventory, partially collapsed the ceiling and had “cooked” the Co-Op’s computers.

“It’s quite bad on the inside,” Langley said. “It was a big surprise, it was a blow.”

Crews entered the building and located a fire near the entrance and the blaze was controlled in about five minutes.

There were no injuries and the building was unoccupied. Langley said she could not say what caused the fire because the incident was still under investigation.

“We will rebuild, we will not let this deter us,” Langley said.

Not long afterwards, in a nice example of cooperation among cooperatives, the Common Ground Cooperative in Champaign, Illinois, was upgrading its POS system and donated its former, fully-functional system to the Sioux Falls Co-op Natural Foods Store.