FLANDREAU – Future plans for the family-owned Flandreau Meat Locker, located at 114 W. Second Ave., are unknown after the business was destroyed in a fire last week.

A Moody County Enterprise staff member saw the smoke from the newspaper office across the street and called 911 about 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

It is suspected the fire originated in the smokehouse, located in the center of the back of the building, though a cause is still unknown.

Smoke spread quickly throughout the building and, because the ceiling had already begun to collapse, Flandreau Fire Chief Jud Krull said volunteers had to fight the fire from the outside.

The Flandreau Meat Locker has been owned and operated by Tyler and Sarah Kills-A-Hundred since September 2013, when they purchased the business from Sarah’s parents, Dave and Jeanine Flatten.

Started during weekly meal

Tyler first heard about the fire while serving a meal for the Butcher’s BBQ, a lunch the locker puts on every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of the building along Second Avenue.

Because they were on the opposite end of the building, meat locker staff and those eating lunch under the canopy tent didn’t see the smoke at first.

Tyler said initially he was hoping the fire was small enough that he could contain it. Running inside to check the smokehouse room, he went around back and saw the smoke pouring out of the building.

In addition to the meat locker business, Tyler said they had Weekend Fuel items, food for the street dance and a wedding rehearsal, around 1,200 pounds of buffalo meat and 120 pounds of pulled pork loin inside the building at the time of the fire. They had planned to donate the pork to Liberty’s Troops for the annual Glow Run.

Though the freezer was no longer cold, a visit from the meat inspector on Friday found the meat inside was not damaged by the fire.

Residents with meat in the freezer storage were asked via Facebook to stop by the locker and pick it up as soon as possible.

Mutual aid

Fire departments from Flandreau, Colman, Trent, Dell Rapids, Pipestone, Elkton and Brookings were on site Thursday afternoon.

Between 50-60 firefighters from these towns cycled in and out to fight the fire throughout the day. Crews were there from before noon until after 6 p.m. Thursday and again early Friday morning.

Additional first responders included Moody County EMS, Flandreau Police Department, Moody County Sheriff’s Office and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal Police.

Krull said a big part of having so many fire departments on site was for the manpower rather than their equipment.

“With two different storm cells coming through town that day, crews had to come off the ladders a few times for concerns of lightning and fight the fire from the ground,” Krull said.

But if the temperature had been higher, much more help would have been needed to contain the fire.

“If it were hotter, we would have had to call in twice as many guys,” Krull said.

During the fire, two officers from each the police department, sheriff’s office and tribal police worked controlling traffic in the area.

Lots of water

According to Martin Jarrett, general manager for Big Sioux Community Water System in Egan, which supplies water to the city of Flandreau, the company was feeding about 400 gallons of water per minute into the city when they learned about the fire.

At the peak point, Jarrett said firefighters were using somewhere around 100,000 gallons of water an hour for the fire.

Around 4 p.m., the Flandreau water towers were a little under half full. At this time, firefighters started using water from two wells east and west of town owned by Loiseau Construction and Ramsdell's.

Jarrett said there was no concern about the city running out of water.

Big Sioux continued feeding the city 865 gallons a minute until around 6:30 p.m. that evening.

Everyone pitches in

Moody County Emergency Manager Terry Albers, who was on site to monitor the storms coming through Flandreau Thursday, said he saw people from different stores throughout town bringing in food and drinks for the firefighters and first responders.

John’s Place brought sandwiches and coolers, Dakota Stop provided pizzas, Royal River Casino brought fried chicken, the Bean and Vine sent cookies, and The Spot brought malts.

An abundance of water, ice and Gatorade was also provided by a number of people and businesses, including Maynard’s and Lewis Drug.

Mayor Mark Bonrud said acts like these are one of the best parts of living in a town like Flandreau.

“That’s the good thing about living in a small community,” Bonrud said. “Whenever a tragedy likes this happens, everybody comes together and does a great job of helping out.”

Back on their feet

The closest neighboring building to the Flandreau Meat Locker on the west is the county Veteran’s Center.

VFW Commander Bridget Flannery said the center was almost completely spared.

“There’s a little water damage in our supply room,” Flannery said. “We are very fortunate.”

Bonrud was on site of the fire with the ambulance crew and said, fortunately, there were no injuries.

On behalf of the city, the mayor said they want to see the Flandreau Meat Locker back in business as soon as possible.

“Tyler is a great asset to the community,” Bonrud said. “We’ll get him and his family back on their feet. The community has shown great resiliency.”

Thankful for help

The day after the fire, Tyler said it was crazy and comforting to see how many people showed up and called and texted him.

“It’s hard for us to even say thank you enough to the fire departments, the people, the businesses. Just everybody,” Tyler said. “I don’t think I’ll get myself to a point to put into words how thankful we are.”

Plans for the business moving forward are not yet known, pending discussions with the insurance company to see what’s possible.