UPDATED: Blaze destroys Wythe County convenience store

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

Two Wythe County businesses face an uncertain future after they were destroyed by fire Tuesday evening. Pure Country Convenience Store and Mavis and Jeannie Hair Care were located in the same building at 4909 Fort Chiswell Road in Poplar Camp.

“We’re devastated right now,” said Teresa Powell, who owned and operated Pure Country Convenience Store with her husband, Jim. “We’d love to do something in that area. But we don’t know yet.”

According to her, there was no insurance on the building and its contents. An insurance claim after the store was burglarized some time ago caused premiums to skyrocket, Powell said.

“We dropped the insurance after that,” she said. “We couldn’t afford it.”

Pure Country Convenience Store opened around 11 years ago. It featured a full line of groceries, Marathon gasoline and snack bar food.

On Wednesday morning, only charred merchandise and timbers and pieces of the metal roof remained.

Store employee Randy Tate and customer Brian Wilson picked through the debris to salvage copper pipe and wire.

The men guarded the property after Tuesday’s fire.

“I’ll be here ‘till the end,” said Tate, who praised the Powells’ treatment of him and the community through the years. “They will help anybody they can, buddy.”

The Powells were at their Carroll County home nine miles away when they got the fire call from their son-in-law who was working at the store around 7 p.m. Tuesday. They also received notification from their alarm company.

“When we got to the store it was in blazes,” Teresa Powell said. “I couldn’t believe it. The store was our livelihood.”

“It looked like a war zone out here last night,” added Wilson, who often hung out at the store. “This place stayed packed all day long.”

The Powells’ daughter and son-in-law are also without jobs now, too, and the store’s loyal customers are mourning the loss.

Jamie Pearman went out of his way to visit.

“The gas was better; the service was better,” the Austinville resident said on Wednesday morning as has joined store employees and others inside the charred hull of the business. “I hate it happened to ‘em.”

Customers and the operators of another business located in the same building were also impacted by the blaze.

Jeannie Webb was also at home Tuesday evening when she received a call from the Barren Springs Volunteer Fire Department of which she is a member of the ladies’ auxiliary. She and her aunt by marriage, Mavis S. Vaughn, are partners in Mavis and Jeannie Hair Care which was located in one end of the Pure Country building they lease from the Powells.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Webb, a hair stylist of 20 years. “We lost everything but we did have insurance on our equipment.”

While shaken by the loss of the building, Vaughn was able to secure another temporary location for the business by Thursday. She and Webb have set up shop in the Hillsville Deli-Mart on Route 100.

“We have so many regular customers that depend on us every week,” noted Vaughn, who has been in business for 40 years. “We depend on them, too.”

Max Meadows Volunteer Fire Department Chief David Morris and some 15 firefighters were responding to a call about smoke inside a house on Bower Lane off Sanders Mine Road around 7:25 p.m. Tuesday. When they got the call to the Poplar Camp fire, Morris diverted two of the fire trucks and personnel to that scene.

He continued to the house fire call which he said turned out to be caused by smoke from a brush fire down the road blowing into the building. Morris and his crew of firefighters arrived in Poplar Camp about half an hour later.

Firefighters and equipment from Barren Springs, Ivanhoe and Hillsville were at the scene with the first delegation from Max Meadows. Lead Mines Rescue Squad personnel were there, too.

“The roof was falling in when I got there,” Morris said. “Everything was destroyed.”

The cause of the fire has not been determined yet, according to Morris. He said it began in the back of the building.

Mrs. Powell said she believes the fire started in a dryer used to dry towels and other items from the snack bar.

Wayne Quesenberry can be reached at 228-6611 or wquesenberry@wythenews.com. Managing Editor Jeffrey Simmons also contributed to this report.