‘We’re here, we’re open’: Hertzler Farm and Feed back on its feet after massive fire

POWHATAN COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A feed store in Powhatan County is adjusting to its new normal after a fire tore through it earlier this year. Family-owned and operated Hertzler Farm and Feed and Quarterfield Markets were devastated after a fire destroyed 12,000 square feet of barns on April 12.

The Hertzlers were overwhelmed by the community support. Now, they're back on their feet and opened a temporary shop as repairs are ongoing.

“Without the community support, we would not be where we are today," market manager of Quarterfiled Markets Jill Hostetter said. "They blessed us in so many ways. The very next day, there were boots on the ground.”

The feed store reopened just three days after the fire and is back to full functionality. Though Quarterfield Markets, where they planned for more than 40 local vendors to sell goods, had opened just days before the fire.

“Each vendor lost, some of them, their entire inventory," Hostetter said. "So, part of the delay in reopening our markets gave our vendors an opportunity to make more product."

The cause of the fire has never been officially determined. However, they assume it was electrical.

The family re-opened the market on May 10 under tents. It wasn't until June that they began using a temporary pavilion, which vendors have now fully stocked.  

The feed store is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. The market is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. These are temporary hours for the market to give them time to rebuild.

They also do a special festival on the second Saturday of each month where hours are extended from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and outside vendors are invited to join.

“Everything in our markets is handmade, hand-grown, hand-crafted, and you just don’t recover that overnight," she said. “We love supporting the small businesses that are represented here.” 

Immediately after the fire, Hostetter said volunteers showed up to clean and recover what little items they could, but they’re still working to reach their pre-fire customers. 

“To this day, we still have people [who] will come into the store and they’re surprised," Hostetter said. "They say, ‘We didn’t know you were reopened or you know, we wanted to give you time to rebuild. And I guess, from our perspective, we want to say come! We’re here, we’re open, we’re here for you and you don’t need to give us space. We want to see you...Business has returned, but not to the same volume that we would’ve had before the fire and we’d love to see the community here again.'" 

The feed store opened in 1983, when Hostetter was a little girl. She said some of her first memories are of using a tiny hammer to nail down the floor in the original store.

They've already replaced the agriculture buildings, but the permitting process for the business has taken a little longer.

While they’re operating in their temporary space right now, the family is hoping to start rebuilding its permanent space in the next few weeks and be in it by Thanksgiving. The family said once it's all solved, their contractor is ready to move and it'll go up quick.