A popular country convenience store received extensive damage from an early-morning fire on Monday.
The fire at Mid-Way Market & Deli, located at 6915 Mississippi Highway 32, near the intersection with Tatum Pond Road east of Charleston, was reported at about 3:30 a.m., according to Tallahatchie County Fire Coordinator Linnie Maples.
Maples added that firefighting units and/or personnel from Murphreesboro, Rosebloom, Spring Hill, Teasdale and Tippo volunteer fire departments battled the blaze.
Spring Hill Fire Chief Raymond Radcliff said when he arrived with that station's pumper truck, fire was already shooting through the roof of the metal building.
The public portion of the store was destroyed by the fire. Another area on the east end of the structure, although left standing, sustained heavy smoke and/or water damage, Radcliff noted.
Maples said the cause of the fire was not immediately known, adding that an investigator from the Mississippi State Fire Marshal's Office was expected on the scene Monday.
Mid-Way is just the most recent business name under which the store, a fixture in the community, has operated over the years.
Some of the previous owners of a business at the site were "Bear" Nelson, who operated it as Nelson's Grocery; Charles Eugene "Gene" Worsham, who for more than two decades in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s ran it as Worsham's Grocery; and Raymond Houston, among others.
The original store building has been added onto over time.
