NORWICH — At approximately 3:10 a.m. on Friday, January 21, the North Norwich Fire Department responded to a 911 call reporting a fire at the Carpetmaster store, located at 7131 State Highway 12 in the Town of North Norwich.

"When I got there we had heavy fire involvement in the main showroom area, and at that point it was already through the roof," said North Norwich Fire Department Chief and Chenango County Fire Bureau Coordinator Matthew Beckwith. "The building actually had the showroom and had a warehouse that was attached to it on the southern half of it. That’s gone too, so all the building and all its contents were completely destroyed."

The City of Norwich Fire Department, Sherburne Fire Department, Plymouth Fire Department, and Smyrna Fire Department also responded to the scene, providing fire trucks and tankers, as well as manpower to fight the flames.

Responding units had to battle not just the fire, but also freezing cold temperatures, which dropped as low as eight degrees below zero. The frigid conditions led to frozen gear and trucks, Beckwith said.

"We had an engine from Plymouth that went to our water supply, and when they got there, they were froze up. So we manage to get them unthawed and got our water supply established," he explained. "We had tankers who were freezing up ... so we couldn't fill them, so we had to put them in the firehouse to have them unthaw. We had brakes freezing up on trucks."