Finley's Still Serving the Community After Electrical Compressor Fire
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Finley's Food Farm in downtown Chinook suffered an electrical fire to their compressor that runs the bulk of the freezer and cooler display space in the grocery store.
According to owner Jeff Finley the fire began at 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9. Finley noticed there was a problem when he arrived at the store Thursday morning, " I showed up at about 4:30 a.m. to clean and realized it was eerily quiet, normally that indicates that the compressors aren't running."
As he looked to find the source of the problem he encountered something he didn't expect, "I went upstairs to check the compressor room and the light wouldn't turn on, so I grabbed my phone turned the flashlight on and said 'Oh my' and kind of freaked out a little bit," Jeff said.
He then went and checked the major breaker and it was blown but everything else in the store was running just fine. "I did a little cleaning and then called the fire department around 7 a.m." added Finley.
Three members of the Chinook Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene to assess the situation. The CVFD determined there was no visible fire danger to the store and called NorthWestern Energy to inspect the electrical.
NorthWestern checked all the electrical wiring to and from the compressor with their thermal imaging camera for hot spots. NorthWestern Energy also sent their gas guy to ensure there was no danger on that end, although none of the compressors run on gas.
How was it determined that the fire began at 11:00 p.m., "I have a camera in the office that activates with movement or sound and the sound of the sparks set the camera off. The audio of the sparking lasted for about two-minutes and it never did ignite anything structural," added Finley. "(CVFD Fire Chief) Kraig Hansen basically said the room did what it was designed for, fire resistant sheetrock and all. It kept everything contained to just the electrical components."
Because of the duration of the coolers and freezers being off, Finley's could not transfer the product, "We couldn't sell or giveaway any product due to food regulations, so we disposed of all product out of temp and then filled as much as space in our other coolers with product that were still within temperature safety guidelines," said Jeff.
Finley's Food Farm will recover, "Insurance will cover the majority of our product loss due to spoilage, but they still have to assess the damage to the electrical and compressors that run the coolers. The coolers are still good," added Finley. "We will continue to work every available avenue to ensure that we can provide the best service to our customers."
In the meantime the show must go on, "We appreciate the assistance provided by the Chinook High School and Meadowlark Elementary for help with cooler space. In the meantime we are extremely grateful for the continued support of our loyal customers and we look forward to getting back on our feet as soon as possible. What a great way to end 2020 - can't wait for the new year," stated Finley.
"Lynette and I are both very grateful to the community for their support and we can't say enough about how our employees have handled the situation and helped us get through it as a team. We are very lucky to have them,"
