Saturday, April 28, 2012

Breaking News: E & L Food Mart Burning - Will Be Demolished by Day's End




Photos and blog post by Nomi Passenger

Some time this morning the hood store known as E & L Food Mart started burning. Located on the corner of Emerson and Lowry Avenues North, the store is known for loitering, open air drug dealing and just general thugginess. 

The photos above show the devastation of the fire, the effort by the MFD to put the flames out from above and a handful of Kamish Demolition workers waiting to do their thing.  They estimate they'll have it knocked down by this evening and were just waiting on the gas utilities to be disconnected. 

The entire intersection area of Lowry and Emerson is blocked off and is a flurry of activity of firefighters, demolition workers, Center Point Energy workers and City of Minneapolis and Inspection department workers. Oh, and Police officers.

No info yet on what started the fire or if there is any suspicious circumstances, but other media outlets are reporting on some firefighters who barely escaped before a collapse. 

God Bless the MFD and thank God that firefighter is okay.

And thank God this crappy hood store is gone, gone gone. It's a good day in Nomi.

(Do Not Click "Read More")

19 comments:

NoMi Passenger said...

Awesome coverage here too:

http://twincitiesfirewire.com/2012/04/28/wall-collapse-at-n-minneapolis-blaze/

Adam said...

I have seen far too many drug deals happen in front of that store, so I am very thankful it is being demolished. I hope no innocent people were injured as a result of this obvious arson job.

Johnny Northside! said...

For the record, I have a rock solid alibi. I wasn't even in the STATE when this happened.

I feel bad that a perfectly good building was lost. Maybe it could have been something nice, but instead the negative energy of the "general thuginess" accumulated to such a degree that it simply burst into flame.

Or maybe it had some help. I await the results of the investigation.

Johnny Northside! said...

NoMi Passenger is sitting right next to me this moment and she said, "Maybe all the heat from the FLAMING HOT CHEETOS caused spontaneous snack combustion."

Anonymous said...

People lost their home, and all their belongings, everything and you rejoice and make jokes. You are really sick people.
There are drug deals all over "NoMi", maybe they should just bull doze the entire northside. Would that solve the problem Adam?

Arson? You know that for a fact Adam?

Anonymous said...

WE NEED MORE STORES LIKE THIS AND IT IS A SHAME THAT NOMI PASSENGER DECIDED TO BURN IT DOWN.WHERE WERE YOU AT THE TIME,MISS PASSENGER? A PRIME SUSPECT FOLLOWING ORDERS FROM J.N. I BELIEVE.

Anonymous said...

all yall some bitches ! tht store meant alot to alot of ppl. to call it hood and thugginess- is ignorant !

Anonymous said...

Stfu stupid mfs

Johnny Northside! said...

Word comes from a mainstream media report the owner had insurance.

Yeah, I BET he had insurance.

As for the other comments...

Right, we're all supposed to be so sad and upset that this notorious haven of lawless and scary activity is gone?

Ray said...

Thanks for the heads up! It was a pretty nice building.. More videos and imagery here: http://geo-location-minneapolis.blogspot.com/2012/04/fire-at-lowry-and-emerson-ave-n-mpls-mn.html

Jeff Skrenes said...

Yes, we ARE supposed to be sad and upset that the building is gone. It was one of the few genuinely appealing, historic brick buildings along the corridor. You can always work to get rid of the bad behavior that plagued the area, but a structure of that kind simply won't get built there again.

Anonymous said...

Oh please. That 100year old building looked like hell.

Hawkman, name one store plagued with bad behavior that anybody has had sucess in getting rid of the bad behavior but the building is still there.

Anonymous said...

Good spot for a Trader Joe's or an Apple Store.

Folwell Neighbor said...

I happened to see the fire as I drove by that morning, it was insane, something out of the movies. The entire west side of the building was a ball of flame. I thought about going back for my camera, but figured they didn't need any more gawkers (though there were only a couple at that time, I must have gotten there pretty early) and I knew other people would be taking plenty of pics.
I never went into that store, and I have to admit one of the major reasons is because of the people hanging out in front. I don't want to deal with that sort of stuff, don't want to get asked if I want to buy drugs. It's got to be tough enough for a small business like this to make ends meet, I'm surprised they would allow that crap to go on in front of their store. How many other upstanding citizens decided not to shop there simply because of the people out front? I guess it works the other way too, how many thugs liked to shop there for the same reasons.
Oh well, I'm glad there were no serious injuries, and it'll be interesting to see where the thug action migrates to. They'll find a new nest somewhere.

Johnny Northside! said...

I never went in there, either, for the same reasons. And I'll go in most places, even thug stores, but this one was just "too thuggy."

Johnny Northside! said...

I was looking up records about this business and was interested to find there was once a cleaning place at that address.

Monogram Cleaners. License expired 1/1/94.

Anonymous said...

So now the "Thug Store" exists as a large pile of shit. This gives our neighborhood a really shit hole look. How long will that pile of shit exist before the City of Minneapolis decides to haul it all away? The "Thug Store" shit pile is now a twin of the shitty "Crap Hole" located a few blocks west on Lowry Avenue. The "Crap Hole" has been there in it's radiant shitty "Crap Hole" glory for more than a year. Just think of all that putrid stinking trash rotting away in the "Crap Hole" and all the rotting food being munched on by filthy city rats in the "Thug Store" pile of shit. YUK!

Johnny Northside! said...

I think I got word the rubble was hauled away VERY recently and I might even have a picture of that in an email that I haven't had a chance to deal with quite yet. I think. Can't say 100 percent yet.

Anonymous said...

E & L Is Backkkkkkkkk..