By Lori Ehde
True Value owners Mark and Beth Novotny are sifting through what remains of their store after an early morning fire destroyed part of the building and most of the inventory Friday.
"I still can't believe it," Beth said Tuesday. "I don't know when you really do realize it. I think it's starting to sink in."
Deputy State Fire Marshall Steve Kellen ruled arson as the cause of the fire, which he suspects was set to disguise a burglary.
The company safe, along with more than $1,200 in it, turned up missing when smoke cleared, and pry marks were found on a west door.
More than 40 firefighters from Luverne, Hardwick and Beaver Creek battled the blaze that was first reported at 3:30 a.m. Friday.
Luverne Fire Chief Kurt Kester said the fire was mostly contained by 9 a.m., but he didn't leave the scene until after noon later that day. No one was injured.
Kester said the fire itself was contained to the back room, but "heat and smoke, of course, is what did the damage to the rest of the building," he said.
The back one-fourth of the building is a total loss, but the Novotnys and insurance adjusters are working through the tedious process of assessing damage throughout the store.
"We can show them where the stereos used to be, but you can't even tell it's a stereo from the heat melting it," Beth said. "There's a teeny little blob where this big TV once was."
She said this process is time consuming, but all future plans hinge on the outcome.
They're considering temporarily relocating in the former Jubilee Foods building downtown, but Beth said arrangements would need to be made to heat the building, which now has no furnace.
They said it's too soon to comment on where they'll be long-term.
Because of environmental concerns, cleanup won't be as simple as bulldozing and starting over.
Beth said at least three separate environmental agents will need to be present when cleanup begins to properly dispose of hazardous materials.
Kester said rising heat caused spray paint canisters to explode in the retail area.
"At times we'd hear this pop, pop, pop," Kester said, adding that paint wasn't the only potential hazard to firefighters.
"You look at your average hardware store, and God knows what's in there for chemicals and explosive material, between all the glues, cleaning solvents and fertilizers."
Kester said even more than the threat of explosions, he was concerned about the roof caving in on firefighters inside.
"I was just about to pull them out, and they finally got it under control," Kester said. "I had one guy stationed on a ladder, just to watch the roof."
He said now, when he looks up from inside the building, he can see the rafters are heat warped.
"If this had happened two weeks ago when we had all that snow on the roof, it would have collapsed just from the extra weight of the snow," Kester said.
Firefighters first gained access to the blaze by breaking the front store windows, but the high heat forced them to retreat.
Damage is so far estimated at more than $600,000 on the building and contents destroyed at a time when shelves and storerooms were overstocked for holiday sales.
A new freight shipment worth about $8,000 had just come in Thursday night. That includes 1,200 gallons of paint.
Mark and Beth have owned the Luverne True Value for six years and employ seven people full- and part-time. They said the company and area True Value store owners have been supportive, as have been community members.
"We really do appreciate the support," she said. "We're very thankful for all the acts of kindness - right down to a single kind word. It really does help carry you through."
The Novotnys have store records backed up on computer, but she said it's unknown if the hard drive information will be accessible.
"We're sending the computer hard drives to a company that supposedly can retrieve information off computers that have been in a fire," she said, "but the backup tapes looked kind of melted and stuck together."
The stolen safe weighed about 250 pounds, so investigators assume at least two people were involved in the burglary.
The Novotnys aren't strangers to crime. Just three years ago, burglars stole True Value's safe and caused roughly $2,000 in damage.
A $2,500 reward is offered by the Minnesota chapter of International Arson Investigators for information leading to the identification of persons responsible for Friday's fire. The arson hotline is 1-800-723-2020.
Kellen said he's doing everything he can to solve the case promptly for a community riddled with unsolved crimes.
"This one we've got to try to solve really bad," he said Monday, referring to the unsolved murder of Carrie Nelson this summer. "We can't let this stuff go on."