SALONA — The owners of Stoltzfus Butcher Shop plan to rebuild and continue operations as soon as possible following a devastating fire this week at its facility.

Dozens of firefighters were called to East End Mountain Road early Wednesday morning for a fire at the business

The call went out by the Clinton County Department of Emergency Services at 1:31 a.m., with neighbors first identifying the blaze. The fire quickly shifted from a second alarm to a third alarm, with fire stations from Centre and Lycoming counties called in to assist.

The call was cleared at 4:37 a.m., according to the department of emergency services.

According to the Lamar Township Fire Chief Shane Steinbacher, “The fire began in the generator room and spread from there.”

Stoltzfus Butcher Shop let its customers know the business would be closed until further notice, working under the assumption that the shop was a total loss.

Though the fire was devastating, according to Mark and Steve Stoltzfus it isn’t a complete loss.

“It’s not a total loss, but we have to pretty much start over with the building. It’s going to be a lot of work,” said Mark.

Crews came together early Wednesday morning to assess the damage and see what could be salvaged.

“We had good response and a lot of help here. Everything is going to be shut down for a while,” said Mark.

“It will be at least four weeks,” said Steve.

The business, owned by Mark Stoltzfus, has been in operation since 1998. In 1991, the store was a participating deer processor in the Pennsylvania HSH program, or “Hunters Sharing the Harvest,” Pennsylvania’s Exclusive Venison Donation and Distribution Program. They outgrew their original store, and in the fall of 2017 they opened a new facility. This is the facility that burned early Thursday morning.

It wasn’t the building, however, that held the most importance. It was the community that had helped them grow.

Their mission statement holds true, “to provide services to our local economy through quality products at affordable prices, with customer service our #1 goal,” a sentiment which was prominently displayed on a large sign above the meat counter.

“We had a lot of other people’s meat here, we’re hoping to take care of that one way or the other. We had a lot of beef hanging here. We want to replace that somehow. It’s going to take some time but we want to do that,” said Mark.

Fire companies that assisted on the scene were Lamar Township/Salona, Castanea, Mill Hall, Dunnstown, Flemington Goodwill Hose, Avis, Beech Creek-Blanchard, Wayne Township, Woolrich, Sugar Valley, Lock Haven EMS from Clinton County; Citizen’s of Larry Creek, and Jersey Shore Independent Hose from Lycoming County; and Miles Township, Howard, Walker Township and Boalsburg from Centre County.