Concord Monitor – Bradford Market and Cafe reopens after the fire with the support of the community

Lauren Howard was at home and recovered from a cold when she got the news that the sweet beet market and the café, the business she had spent in the past decade, had caught fire.

It was the last thing a business owner wants to hear.

“It was only shocking and worrying,” said Howard, co -founder and operational director at Sweet Beet. “I was very relieved when I learned more about what was going on and what had happened and how it was a very isolated incident.”

The fire broke out in the back of the kitchen last week, but did not spread far and the fire brigade did what they could do to limit the damage.

The Bradford market, which is known for the sale of local farm products, was closed to the public on this day, which is typical every day. One of Howard's team members discovered Rauch and quickly played by closing the propan to the kitchen.

Howard, who lives ten minutes away, threw her shoes on, reached for her jacket and hurried to the scene.

Firefighters from Bradford, Henniker, Warner and New London worked for hours to extinguish the flames and bring out hot spots. While the cause is still being investigated, early signs indicate that it has started within the walls of the building, and the firefighters force to tear through parts of the kitchen.

“My first thought was only to make sure everyone was doing well, and then it was only the hole in the wall later,” said Howard.

However, the real challenge came after the fire had failed.

Smoke pollution meant that every inch of the market had to be scrubbed clean. Every exposed food had to go. That meant that pounding fresh products – potatoes, onions, pumpkin – had lost.

“The rules for food safety require that we are very careful what we sell and provide,” said Howard. “So we couldn't even donate it or use it ourselves or something so that we would not unintentionally poison ourselves.”

While the sweet beet is open again and its kitchen repaired, the overwhelming support of the community was a silver strip in an otherwise difficult situation, Howard said.

The farmers added by adding additional products to deliveries, suppliers offered generous discounts, and the locals passed to shop and took up everything that was available.

“It was incredible,” said Howard. “Our group of buyers came in and supported us and continued to show up and appeared, although we might have had some limited supplies at that time.”

Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be reached at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.com