Columbus Farmers Market, damaged by fire, to open as scheduled

Dave Stoltzfus seemed relieved after visiting his bakery Wednesday, one day after a raging fire gutted other shops at the Columbus Farmers Market.

"We had to throw out some food - mostly cheesecakes - because the electricity is out," he said. "But we should be able to get back open in 48 hours."

Except for 10 small shops destroyed in the four-alarm blaze, and a few others affected by it, the market will be open Thursday through Sunday, as it normally is, said Matthew McCrink, an attorney for the market's owners.

As many as 1,500 vendors sell their wares at the outdoor flea market on Route 206 in Springfield Township on a good day, he said, and 65 others operate a food court and sell goods in the nearby indoor market.

"Building Four," the oldest portion of the L-shaped indoor market, was destroyed in the blaze, which erupted shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday. Springfield Police Chief Eric Trout said workers at the closed market quickly shut steel fire doors in the building, preventing the flames from spreading to other shops.

Because of concerns about strong winds, firefighters cut a trench in the roof to contain the flames, he said. The fire was brought under control by 3:45 p.m.

Inside the charred skeleton Wednesday, investigators from the Burlington County Fire Marshal's Office, the New Jersey State Police Arson and Bomb Unit, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were poking through the rubble.

"It doesn't appear to be a suspicious fire, but that's up to the investigators to determine and to find out where it started," Trout said.

McCrink said Charles Pratt, one of the owners, was at the market when a worker told him he saw flames. Pratt helped close the fire doors and ordered a call to the fire department.

Pratt and his partner, John Ackerman, are both farmers and also co-own a construction business that builds residential and commercial buildings, McCrink said. "Obviously, they were very upset about this, but they immediately got to work and called in work crews and the insurance companies."

McCrink said 95 percent of the market was unaffected. By Thanksgiving - the biggest day of year for the complex - the indoor market should have electricity restored and be open, except for Building Four, he said.

Among the shops in the closed section were a wicker emporium, a jewelry and coin shop, a shoe repair business, and a gourmet Asian food store.

Vendors at a seafood and produce market a few hundred feet away were busy Wednesday accepting deliveries and preparing for the week.

The market opened in 1919 as a cattle and horse auction and grew over the years.

The current owners bought the property in the '80s, McCrink said, and are "hands-on, here almost every day."

The last fire at the indoor market was in 1972 and was much more extensive, Trout said.

After that blaze, the market was closed for several years, according to published reports.