Market hit by fire, again

Loyal patrons express anger as they console the owner of a popular farm market.

By THOMAS LAKE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007

Jerry Kuss, 65, looks at the remains of the Massachusetts Farm Market which was gutted by a fire. Rose Mohr, 60 owns the farmer's market which she has been building up for almost two years. Kuss runs the tree and landscaping business out of part of the building.
	[David Degner | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [David Degner | Times] Jerry Kuss, 65, opens a trailer that will be the temporary home of the Massachusetts Avenue Farm Market, which was gutted by a fire early Thursday in New Port Richey. The market and Kuss' tree and landscaping business had shared the building. [David Degner | Times] A few chared oranges and pumpkins litter the burnt ruins of the Massachusetts Farm Market.

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Fire came in the dark and it turned the red potatoes black and it gave the watermelons third-degree burns and it licked the skin off the pumpkins so their bare flesh blazed like the midnight sun.

And the flames died and the day broke and Rose Mohr stood by the ruined market, and when the customers came to buy produce she had none to sell.

"God almighty," said Roma LeClair, who wanted tomatoes for marinara sauce.

"Oh my goodness," said Ronda Girgis, who was looking for cucumbers.

"Happens to the nicest people," said Robert Neubauer, who had dinner plans that involved his wife and some home-cooked asparagus.

One by one they came, and one by one they saw, and one by one they wrapped her in their arms, and if it seems unusual to love one's produce manager, consider this:

The events of the past 10 days suggest that someone out there also hates her.

Rose Mohr opened the Massachusetts Avenue Farm Market about two years ago. She works 13 hours a day, seven days a week, even though she is 60 years old and has four grandchildren. She gets up at 5 a.m. to go to Plant City and buy the day's produce wholesale and she stays at the store until after 6 p.m. She operates under three main principles: fresh produce, low price and personal relationships, and she knows most of her customers by name.

Some time late Sept. 24 or early Sept. 25, someone broke into the market, stole a cash register, poured some gasoline and started a fire. Sheriff's deputies put it out with a fire extinguisher before it caused serious damage.

Three nights later, according to a sheriff's incident report, someone tried another break-in. The burglar damaged the back door but didn't get in.

Then, around 3 a.m. Thursday, the Farm Market caught fire again. Nineteen firefighters spent 17 minutes putting it out, according to acting Assistant Chief Mike Ciccarello of Pasco County Fire Rescue, but by then it had caused nearly $200,000 in damage.

The fire's cause was under investigation Thursday.

"You can reach your own conclusion," Ciccarello said. "You got a burglary, an arson, another burglary ..."

Mohr did not own the building, but she did have four part-time employees. She said she had no idea who might have set the fire. But she plans to open again soon, selling produce out of a cart in the building's parking lot.

And there she was around 1 p.m. Thursday, blue sky bleeding through the fallen roof, as two more customers pulled up: Broderick Dobarganes, 44, and his mother, Moniou, 76.

"You got anything in the fridge?" Moniou said.

"Everything is gone, sweetie," Mohr said.

"They had the best produce. The best prices ... if you had a bad tomato, she'd give you two for one," Broderick said.

Moniou began to weep.

"This just breaks my heart," she said.

The man and his mother headed back to their Subaru. They would wait for their avocados.

"We will not go nowhere else," Broderick said. "That's a promise."

"Love you, baby," Moniou said.

"Love you, too," Mohr said, facing the wreckage, and she said she had put her heart into that place, and maybe she had, but now it was beating in her chest, safe from the flames, under a white shirt printed with green apples.

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified October 4, 2007, 23:28:02]