LAMAR, Pa. — The sound of a table saw echoes through Stoltzfus Butcher Shop in Lamar Township in Clinton County. Employees who worked at the Amish owned butcher shop are helping to rebuild after a fire hit the business a few weeks ago.
"Started at the diesel room, and we don't know what caused it; we weren't concerned of any issues; we did have a fire extinguisher—an overhead fire extinguisher, a firewall, it could've been an alternator or something that got hot we really don't know," said Mark Stoltzfus, owner of Stoltzfus Butcher Shop.
The fire started around 12:30 a.m. on April 24th. Owner Mark Stoltzfus says they lost most of the structure, except for the back end of the store.
"And that we saved except the roof, but as far as the store and the contents, we saved some of our equipment, but everything else pretty much had all smoke and water damage and pretty much starting over, but we could use the same foundation."
When Newswatch 16 arrived hours after the fire, community members and butcher shop employees were already cleaning up the mess left behind. Stoltzfus says the building will have the same layout with some changes--such as adding a new meat-cutting room.
"It should be more efficient, kind of relieves the other end of the shop was—had a little bit of a bottleneck there sometimes, trying to take care of the retail and the customer part, and that's going to be a little more separate," said Stoltzfus.
Owner Mark Stoltzfus's goal is to have the butcher shop open at the end of the month.