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The parking lot at Gary & Leo's Fresh Foods is nearly empty as customers are turned away after a fire forced the business to temporarily close its doors Wednesday afternoon.
An electrician walks around the back side of a building where a fire caused Gary and Leo's Fresh Foods to close down Wednesday afternoon.
A sign on the front door indicates a temporary closure of IGA on Wednesday.
An electrical fire at Gary & Leo's Fresh Foods at about 2 p.m. has shut down the grocery store for at least a few hours.
Havre Fire Chief Mel Paulson said the fire was rather small and that the problem was contained quickly.
"It looks like a compressor building on the south side of IGA," he said. "It appears they had some sort of a short in there and it caused some heat. A little bit of flame went up and caught the ceiling tiles on fire and melted down some of the plastics in there."
"We were there and had it under control in about five minutes," he added.
Paulson said the fire did not reach the main store, but an HVAC system did begin to transfer some smoke into the main building.
Multiple electricians were on the scene before 4 p.m. to help fix damage caused by the fire and to get the store up and running.
In response to the fire, workers at BNSF Railway bought out all of the hot food from the deli counter on the north side of the building so that it didn't go to waste.
There isn't an official reopening time set, but workers at IGA said they are aiming to be open within four hours - at about 8 p.m. - or, if not tonight, then by Thursday morning.
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