State Fire Report on Council Market Fire
The city of Council currently has three bids and expects two to three more for the removal of the burned remains of the old Council Valley Market at 202 Illinois Ave. City Clerk Ashley Scott told me that they expect to award the contract at the next city council meeting on February 11th. The start date would be ‘ASAP’ according to Scott but it will depend on the selected contractor’s schedule.
The general scope of work for this project would include removal of the asbestos in compliance with law, removal of the rest of the debris, removal of the property’s east wall that adjoins the Huptye building, removal of the footers to below grade and restoring the lot to a graveled flat surface.
The city would most likely then place a lien against the property for the clean up amount to help recoup costs.
Shani Smith of Huptye says they will fix their building after the demolition is complete. They will have to replace their west wall that adjoined the Council Valley Market.
The official and complete Fire Investigation Report from the State Fire Marshal’s Office was released recently. They conclude that the fire was accidental and that the fire ‘was initiated with the heating element of the pellet smoker as the ignition source.’
The report goes on to state that one of the witnesses to the fire, an employee of Cuddy Mountain Custom and Specialty Meats LLC, “indicated that the smoker had caught fire before, but that they were able to extinguish the flames prior to the fire department’s arrival.”
In addition to the smoker in question and according to Adams County Dispatch call logs, a freezer suffered an electrical fire in a breaker box on the freezer on October 1. According to these same call logs, it states that they advised that the “Owner needs to contact company to get it checked out before turning it back on.”
The Fire Marshal’s report also states that they were “made aware of several previous fires that had occurred in the building, some of which reportedly involved this same smoker. The most recent fire prior to this one had occurred the week before on October 1, 2024 when there was an electrical failure in one of the freezers.”
And finally this statement in the summary of the Fire Investigation Report: “Analysis of all the evidence and information revealed was sufficient to support that the fire was the result of an unintentional act. During the course of this investigation, no evidence or information was discovered that would support any deliberate act which would have caused this fire.”
Additionally, the owner of Cuddy Mountain Custom and Specialty Meats LLC, Sara Willey, currently has two active criminal cases against her in Adams County. One case is in District Court and one is in Magistrate court. All charges are felony level. Peter Donovan, Adams County Prosecuting Attorney, was contacted for comment as well as two of Willey’s lawyers. Donovan declined to comment as the cases are pending and Willey’s lawyers have yet to respond.
