Fritz Creek General Store near Homer destroyed by fire

A beloved general store and post office near Homer was destroyed by fire early Thursday morning, authorities said.

A passerby noticed smoke and flames coming from the Fritz Creek General Store on East End Road around 4 a.m. and called for help, said Kachemak Emergency Services Chief Bob Cicciarella. The building was engulfed by flames when firefighters arrived, he said.

No one was inside when the blaze began, Cicciarella said.

Firefighters from the Homer Volunteer Fire Department and Western Emergency Services also responded. The fire was controlled about 40 minutes after crews arrived, Cicciarella said. The older construction made it challenging for firefighters to ensure the fire was completely out and they remained on scene until about 10 a.m., he said.

The building is believed to be a total loss, Alaska State Troopers said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire, but an investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office was headed to the scene Thursday morning, said troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel.

The general store served for decades as an unofficial community center for East End Road residents — a place where “everybody knows everybody,” Cicciarella said.

“I think it’s going to be a blow to a lot of people,” he said. “Even as we were starting to pack up and leave, people were pulling in there to get their morning coffee and breakfast burrito and to their surprise, they saw what was going on and it was a lot of shock. I talked to a couple of people that have been coming there for a long time and they were saying it’s their life — they’ve been coming there forever.”

[From 2019: State evicts cat that’s been a celebrity in a store near Homer]