I awoke on New Year’s Day to the shocking news that our neighborhood grocery store, Haddad’s Supermarket, burned down overnight. The building is a total loss. None of the news reports that I’ve read so far say what caused the fire. I would imagine that’s yet to be determined by fire investigators. You can read all about the fire and see the devastating pictures at both pjstar.com and week.com.

I was very glad to see this in WEEK’s report:

[Store owner Mark] Wrhel says the building is insured and he will rebuild.

Mr. Wrhel lives in my neighborhood. My condolences to him and all the employees of Haddad’s on the loss of the store. I’m glad to hear it will be rebuilt and look forward to going there again.

UPDATE: Here’s a short and shaky video of the fire that was posted to YouTube:

UPDATE 2: 1470 WMBD is now reporting that “[West Peoria Fire Chief Bob] Stecher says the State Fire Marshall will be here Monday to sift through the remains to determine a cause of the fire.” Also, another amateur video — this one is longer and steadier — has been uploaded to YouTube. I recommend watching it with the sound turned off:

UPDATE 3: More stories are coming out. 1470 WMBD reports that Haddad’s home delivery is going to continue even while there is no building. “‘We’re just going to shop it out of another store,’ explains Wrhel.” The fire investigator examined the site Monday and, according to the Journal Star, ruled out arson. The cause of the fire is still undetermined, however. And loyalty to the store is very strong, by all accounts — here’s WEEK’s report. Here’s a picture I took of the store on New Year’s Day close to sunset: