A snowy lot surrounded by cement bricks is all that remains of the 100-year-old Thompson Country Market in West Sunbury.

More than 30 fire departments responded to the fire on Christmas Day last year that displaced four in the building’s adjoining apartments and wiped the small town’s mom ‘n’ pop corner store off Main Street.

A year later, firefighters said the lack of municipal water and freezing temperatures played a role in fighting the blaze that firefighters contained to the market, preventing its spread to nearby structures.

“There was disappointment that the building burned down, satisfaction that we kept it to one building,” said Reid Campbell, captain of West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department.

Campbell, who was commanding fire chief at the time and lives on the edge of town, said the fire was a pivotal moment for the community.

Chief Cody Craig of Chicora Volunteer Fire Department called it a “loss of a landmark.”

“It was your small town grocery store and convenience store,” said West Sunbury fire chief Justin O’Hara. “If you needed a gallon of milk, you ran to Thompson real quick. If you live in the area, it’s anywhere from a five-minute walk to a 10-minute drive. You didn’t have to drive to a big box grocery store.”

O’Hara, who was a lieutenant at the time of the fire, lives across the street from where the market once stood. Before the fire, he would visit it daily, he said.

“It was kind of a center staple of the town,” he said.

When he received the emergency alert on his phone Christmas morning, O’Hara said he instantly recognized the caller as the store owner. He said he left his daughter at a Christmas celebration with her mother.

“I knew immediately — this was real,” O’Hara said. “It was immediately high stress.”

“Once dispatch gave a description of smoke coming from the eaves of the building, we thought, ‘This is not going to be good,’” Campbell said.

By the time the volunteer fire department had arrived, O’Hara said they were fighting a losing battle.

Campbell said the fire department had planned for a fire at the market, but had always anticipated if a fire were to break out, it would start in the kitchen.

“As our crew made entry crawling across the floor, one of the members said, ‘The floor doesn’t feel right’” he shared, “and they reached out and hit the floor with an ax, and it broke through.”

The crew quickly realized the fire had started in the basement, Campbell said, which O’Hara described as “a labyrinth.” One stairway was its only entrance and exit.

“With the floor giving away, it was unsafe to be in the building,” Campbell said.

Firefighters were evacuated and had to restrategize. From fighting an offensive fire, O’Hara said the crew fought defensively, meaning firefighters battled the flames from outside the building to minimize their exposure.

“At that point, we knew what was going to happen,” Campbell said.

More than six hours later, the building was a total loss.

“Out in rural America, where you have volunteer fire departments, you’re more used to losing structures,” O’Hara said.

Having paid, on-site firefighters increases response time to a structure fire compared to “any volunteer service across the United States,” he said.

“With volunteer firefighters, there’s the delay from the call to dispatch, from dispatch to crew members arriving to the fire station,” he said. “And then the delay that every member — paid or volunteer — sees is from the fire station to the scene.”

Nine minutes elapsed from the time dispatch was called until the first fire truck arriving, O’Hara said.

“Those nine minutes were a very long nine minutes,” he said. “So much can happen with a fire evolving, and also that day, the roads weren’t the best.”

The cold also played a critical role, he said.

“It just kinda zapped that energy from you,” O’Hara said. “Another major issue was the pumps were freezing. I do believe it was a whopping 5 degrees that day — it was cold.”

“We initially thought the (firetrucks) had problems with freezing gauges,” Campbell said. “The cold became more of a problem as the day went on.”

As they braved the weather, firefighters contended with the changing wind conditions while trying to stay warm.

“The elements weren’t in our favor,” Craig said. “The fire extinguishing process took a lot more work.”

As firefighters battled the blaze, a local church and a car wash took in first responders to provide them with shelter, or makeshift “firefighter rehabilitation,” Craig said.

Without municipal water or fire hydrants, Campbell said firefighters had to haul water from two nearby ponds; one on Hooker Road, the other on Halston, O’Hara said. About 17 tankers were used in the operation, O’Hara said.

“The lack of municipal water is always a hindrance,” Campbell noted.

Out of the 33 stations that responded, O’Hara said 22 were from Butler County, six were from Venango County, four from Mercer County and one from Lawrence County. Two departments were on standby from Armstrong and Clarion counties, he said.

“It’s a family thing,” Craig said. “As we responded, we were with our fire family. That’s what we call each other.”

Afterward, Craig said firefighters continued taking other calls — the fourth-generation firefighter recalls returning home late at night. Most didn’t return until 10 or 10:30 p.m., he said.

“A lot of people woke up to be with their families, and watch their kids open presents,” Craig said.

“It shows dedication that runs in our local fire departments,” he said.

Looking back on the day the market went up in flames, O’Hara said, what sticks out to him the most is “just the sheer amount of help that we had.”

“It took a lot of coordinating effort, and yet seasoned firefighters knew what they had to,” Campbell said.

Telling the Thompson family the market would be a total loss “was sad to do,” Campbell said, describing the family members as kind and understanding through the situation.

O’Hara said the family was present as the fire was unfolding.

“It was difficult for them because they grew up in that store,” O’Hara said. “That was their dad’s store.”