Cleaning towels are being blamed for the smoke that filled Casey’s General Store early Monday morning, prompting a response from the fire department and a call to the state fire marshal.
Waynesville firefighters responded around 4:32 a.m. to a report of the store, located at 1106 Historic U.S. 66, being full of smoke.
The investigation showed an employee tried to dry some cleaning towels in the store’s pizza oven because the dryer wasn’t working, Waynesville Fire Chief Doug Yurecko said.
“There was no visible fire,” he said, noting the towels were folded and put in a stainless steel prep station drawer, where they caught fire.
Beyond the smoke that filled the building, the damage was limited to the prep table, which had some melted utensils, Yurecko said.
“We’ve never seen anything like that and the state fire marshal had never seen anything like that either,” he said.
There was some smoke damage to the store, and the Pulaski County Health Department was called to the scene, a normal notification when an establishment that serves food and drink is involved in a fire.
The store, Yurecko said, did have to toss out some food, but business continued as usual.
