The night of January 21, 2025, started out like any other freezing Tuesday in Seneca County. Then the sirens started. Most people in the village of Ovid didn't realize it at first, but the "heart" of their downtown was about to be erased from the map.
The Ovid Big M fire wasn't just a building burning down. It was a total collapse of the local ecosystem. For over 50 years, that supermarket at 7174 North Main Street was where you saw your neighbors, where the high school kids got their first jobs, and honestly, the only place for miles to get a gallon of milk without driving 20 minutes out of town.
Now? It’s a pile of memory and ash.
The Spark That Leveled a Block
It started small. Kinda terrifying how small, actually.
In one of the apartments right above the Big M, a tenant had a portable power-source charging device—the kind people use for camping to keep their phones or a small TV running—plugged into an outlet. Around 3:00 p.m., it was just sitting there. By 5:45 p.m., the resident noticed smoke. She didn't wait around. She grabbed her children and ran, which is probably the only reason we aren't talking about a much darker tragedy today.
The Seneca County 911 Center got the call at 5:46 p.m. By the time the Ovid Fire Department arrived three minutes later, the fire was already making a run for it through the attic.
Old buildings have a secret enemy: common attic spaces. These 19th-century structures were basically built to burn together. Once the flames got into that shared crawlspace, they hopped from the Big M over to the Uptown Diner. Then it hit the laundromat. Then the Italian Kitchen.
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Fighting Fire in a Refrigerator
The conditions were, frankly, miserable.
Temperatures hovered around 7 degrees. With the wind chill, it felt like minus 15. Think about that for a second. You’re trying to spray thousands of gallons of water, but the water is turning into ice the second it hits the air.
Chief Tim Westlake described a scene that sounds like a low-budget disaster movie. One firefighter’s gloves literally froze to his hands. Another guy had his t-shirt freeze to his chest because his sweat turned to ice under his gear. It’s hard to wrap your head around that kind of cold unless you were standing on Main Street that night.
Why the Hydrants Went Dry
About an hour into the fight, the worst-case scenario happened. The village water system couldn't keep up. Ovid’s aged infrastructure just wasn’t built to handle the massive volume needed to stop a block-wide inferno.
The hydrants went bone dry.
Firefighters had to pivot to a massive tanker shuttle. They were trucking in water from the Five Points Prison and the hamlet of Willard. At one point, ten fire trucks were just lined up at the prison, waiting to fill their tanks. It took over 200 firefighters from seven different counties—Seneca, Cayuga, Ontario, Schuyler, Tompkins, Yates, and Wayne—to finally get a grip on it.
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The Aftermath: More Than Just Bricks
By Wednesday morning, the "Big M" was gone.
Six businesses were destroyed. Eleven apartments were leveled. Between 15 and 20 people lost every single thing they owned. Kelsy Thorn, a resident who lived above the store with her three kids, lost her home, her car, and everything inside.
But for the rest of Ovid, the loss is about "food security," a fancy term for "where the heck do we buy groceries now?"
- The Big M: Opened in 1970. Owned by Sue Senior, whose parents built it from the ground up.
- Italian Kitchen: A local staple where Ron Carmona saw his life’s work go up in smoke.
- The Economy: About 60 people were suddenly out of work in a village where jobs aren't exactly growing on trees.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often assume a fire this big must involve a gas leak or something "major." It didn't. This was a "lithium-ion" or battery-related incident from a portable charger. It’s a wake-up call about the stuff we leave plugged in and forget about.
Also, some folks thought the buildings could be saved because the fire took so long to spread. Truth is, once it got into those "balloon-frame" walls and the shared attic, the buildings were dead on their feet. The fire department’s priority shifted almost immediately from "save the building" to "make sure nobody dies."
On that front, they succeeded. Despite the collapses and the sub-zero temps, there were no civilian injuries and only three minor injuries to firefighters.
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Where Ovid Goes From Here
So, what do you do when your downtown is a hole in the ground?
The community response has been staggering. The Ovid Community Thrift Store opened its doors for free to those affected. Five Star Bank dropped a $10,000 grant to help. But rebuilding a grocery store isn't like fixing a broken window.
Immediate Actionable Steps for Locals and Supporters:
- Check the "Ovid Will Return" initiatives: Local groups and the United Way of Seneca County are still coordinating long-term relief for the 60+ employees who lost their livelihoods.
- Safety Check Your Chargers: Seriously. The cause here was a portable power station. Check your devices for recalls and never leave high-capacity batteries charging unattended on flammable surfaces like carpets or near curtains.
- Support the Neighboring Spots: Places like the Edith B. Ford Memorial Library and the "Three Bears" buildings were saved by the fire department’s "trench cuts" and roof-sitting. They need the foot traffic more than ever now that the Big M isn't drawing people to Main Street.
Ovid is a small place, but it's tough. As Mayor Aaron Roisen put it, it won't ever be the same, but they'll move through it. They always do.
If you're looking to help, contact the Catholic Charities of the Finger Lakes or the Ovid VFW, which have been spearheading the direct support for the displaced families. The road to a new grocery store is going to be long, but the first step is making sure the people who lived above it have a roof over their heads tonight.