A fire that completely destroyed a Lakota-owned-grocery store in Whiteclay, Nebraska has been ruled accidental.

We spoke with the Nebraska State fire marshal investigating the incident and was given access to the official report on the blaze at Arrowhead Foods.

Mike Turner is fire marshal for the entire Nebraska Panhandle. His report notes that a fire at Arrowhead Foods in Whiteclay was called in at 9:06 a.m. on July 25. 

Martin Pilcher is co-owner of the store along with his wife, Rhiannon. Turner’s report notes that Pilcher had turned on a chicken fryer to warm-up and then left the food preparation area. When Pilcher returned a short time later he found the room full of smoke.

Pilcher and one of his employees attempted to smother the blaze causing the smoke with fire extinguishers but were unsuccessful.

Responding fire departments were from Rushville and Gordon, Nebraska. The first fire equipment arrived on scene at 9:25 a.m.

Mike Turner is based in Scottsbluff. He arrived on the scene at 2:15 p.m. after the responding firefighting personnel requested a Nebraska State Fire Marshall to assist in the investigation of what caused the blaze.

The building had been completely consumed by the blaze fire when Turner arrived at the scene.

Turner reports that he traced the fire’s origin to the store’s kitchen area where he found 3 fire extinguishers “setting on the ground”.

After speaking to witnesses and those involved Turner determined that the fire was accidental. The blaze appears to have been caused by “the failure of the electric chicken frying machine that was turned on to warm up”.

Arrowhead Foods was financed with the assistance of Lakota Funds…a community development organization based in Kyle, South Dakota. Tony Taylor is the group’s loan officer.

Taylor notes that the insurance company has indicated that Arrowhead Foods was insured adequately for Martin Pilcher to pay off the debt owed on the store.

There is some money left over that Pilcher could put toward rebuilding, adds Taylor, if he so chooses. But an additional loan would be required.

The Pilchers  were not available for comment at the time of this report.

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