Fire damages Point MacKenzie General Store and Cafe

POINT MACKENZIE — Two people escaped unharmed from an early morning blaze at the Point MacKenzie General Store and Café early Thursday morning.

According to Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele one of the building’s owners was in an upstairs apartment and a store employee was downstairs getting things ready to open for the day when the fire started.

“They heard the sound of what they described it as a couple of booms, and they thought maybe it was a shotgun noise just from the area, but then one of them discovered the fire out the back of the building,” Steele said.

Both made it out safely and called for help.

Steele said eight tankers and two engines showed up to fight the blaze. Some of the trucks came from the West Lakes and Houston fire departments.

“When our first apparatus arrived on scene they weren’t aware that we had an all clear at that point in time so (they) made entry upstairs and actually got a quick knock down on the fire,” Steele said.

The fire burned the back wall and into the upstairs apartment, damaging the roof structure. He said it’s an open question whether the owners’ insurance company will decide repairing is better than replacing the building.

“Definitely, with that amount of damage, the store is going to be closed for a while,” Steele said.

He said the fire started in the back of the building near the entrance to the upstairs apartment and a storage add-on to the building.

“The back wall burned, but as far as most of the rest of it, downstairs is water damage and it had just started burning on the inside of that wall or breaching it,” Steele said.

As far as exactly where or what started the fire, Steele said he couldn’t say for sure.

“We still have an investigator out there who is trying to make a determination on the cause and the origin of the fire,” he said.

Mat-Su Borough property records show the building has an assessed value of $220,600 this year. The land it sits on is valued at $45,200. Its owner is listed as a limited liability corporation. State records show the corporation has two owners, Jeffery and Julie Wendt of Wasilla.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.