Town Knows Big Fires Too Well Residents Anxious To Get Back To Normal After Explosion

Talk among the locals gathered at the Tenderfoot general store Thursday morning for dime coffee and 40-cent doughnuts was evenly divided - a sure sign that life here was returning to normal.

Some people still discussed the Tuesday explosion and fire that destroyed The Outdoorsman sporting goods store and littered Riverside Avenue with scorched roofing material and spent rifle shells.

But others wanted to talk about the leaky roof at the 2-year-old high school that forced officials to cancel classes Thursday.

“Four million dollars for that school, and they’re already having problems,” said one woman as federal agents sifted through blast debris outside the Tenderfoot window, including a mounted elk head that was blown across the street.

The 800 year-round residents of this Old West tourist town in north-central Washington are used to catastrophes by now, having just endured the third high-profile fire here in the past four years.

The landmark Winthrop Emporium burned in an arson fire in 1993. The following year, United Methodist Church was destroyed in a suspected arson blaze.

No one has been convicted in connection with either of those fires.

There is no evidence that Tuesday’s explosion and fire was the result of arson. Some officials speculate a propane leak caused the blast.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Thursday it will be several weeks before they have a final answer on the cause of the explosion.

They were expected to continue collecting evidence from The Outdoorsman today before sending debris to a laboratory for analysis.

The 9 p.m. explosion blew the roof off the yellow concrete building and sparked a fire that ignited nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition inside the store.

Luckily, the ammunition supply was depleted after the recent hunting season, said Vic Moss, who’s run The Outdoorsman for 21 years.

“I usually have twice as much as that,” Moss said.

As it was, the force of the blast cracked the foundation of the building in two places and threw half the roof one way and half the other. Flying bullets riddled the air, hitting some buildings in the downtown area.

At least 15 stores lost windows in the blast.

“It sure annihilated things,” Moss said after answering questions from ATF agents Thursday. “We’re real lucky it didn’t kill anybody.”

Moss, who has insurance, said he hopes to reopen the business that specializes in hunting and fishing gear by spring.

Two buildings adjacent to The Outdoorsman were empty at the time of the explosion.

One of them - Three Fingered Jack’s restaurant and lounge - closed down about 10 days ago due to financial problems. Residents said the business would have been full of people drinking and dancing Tuesday night had it been open.

The other building, called the Artisans, was closed for the night. It houses an arts-and-crafts shop.

City officials were able to open one lane of Riverside Avenue by early Thursday afternoon, which lifted spirits throughout town.

The other lane remained blocked off with orange cones and yellow crime tape so investigators could continue their work.

Some residents expressed frustration at the adverse media attention the explosion brought to Winthrop, which survives on tourist dollars.

“I’m tired of it,” said Greg Biell, owner of the Tenderfoot, which had to be rebuilt after the Emporium fire. “I just wish all these fires and explosions would stop.”

Moss agreed. “It just seems like it’s one thing after another,” he said.

Mayor Don Johnson said the town would recover. The flood of 1948 was the biggest hardship ever to hit Winthrop, destroying dozens of homes and businesses, Johnson said.

“It done a lot more devastation than this,” said Johnson, who moved to the Methow Valley in 1931. “It shouldn’t take us too long to get back a-going from this. We’ll heal up real quick. We’ll survive.”

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