Old Pechin's burns
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By Chuck Brittain
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Rege Lowman fondly remembered the late Sullivan F. "Sully" D'Amico, founder of Pechin Shopping Village, and the philosophy that turned a modest Fayette County family store into an enterprise with sales in excess of $30 million annually that once was featured in the Wall Street Journal.
"He said he'd rather sell 25 one-cent items than one 25-cent item," Lowman said Friday. "It was his dream to help people."
Then, Lowman turned to watch as an intense fire reduced the former site of Pechin Shopping Village to ash within a few hours. He turned back, paused, and added, "It was a philosophy that made him rich."
Lowman, of Dunbar Township, who has worked more than 30 years as a security guard for Pechin Shopping Village in Dunbar, stood within 75 yards of the abandoned shopping center as firefighters from 20 companies battled a stubborn and intense blaze that sent billows of smoke hundreds of feet in the air.
No one was injured in the fire that started around 3 p.m. By 5 p.m., flames raged through the structure, devouring everything as it moved more than 100 yards from the point of origin.
Most of the center has been closed since last summer, when Donald D'Amico Jr., company president and CEO and grandson of the founder, relocated the stores to Laurel Mall under the name Pechin Super Foods, just a few miles from the original shopping village that featured prices so low that word-of-mouth advertising anchored a reputation for rock bottom prices.
Although the facility ceased to be the hub of the business, dozens of locals lined the streets bordering the store complex to watch as the flames spread.
Workers in a warehouse area of the structure were inside at the time and rumors were swirling about the possible cause, but an official report is pending investigation by a state police fire marshal. Witnesses said all workers got out safely and there were no reports of any injuries to firefighters.
Tankers from several different companies ferried water from Braddock, about three miles away, to help battle flames that were being swept away by gusting winds. Power to some nearby residences was lost when several transformers were destroyed.
An occasional pop could be heard as flames reached propane tanks stored in the facility. Firemen prevented the fire from spreading to a concrete block building that housed several vintage automobiles.
Burning tarpaper on the roof yielded thick, black smoke. The fire grew so intense cinder block walls of the former drug and tobacco outlet collapsed. Several tractor trailers near the warehouse also burned.
Firemen doused a two-story house across the road from the fire as a preventive measure. The building houses Rendu Services, a community service organization run by Catholic sisters that provides health screenings and educational programs and hosts a monthly food pantry. It is where the Pechin empire was born nearly 60 years ago.
D'Amico Jr. was at the scene but unavailable for comment.
The original shopping village featured numerous businesses, but it was the food store that served as the anchor for Pechin in Dunbar, a hamlet of about 1,400 people. Customers negotiated through the store that was built over Gist Run Creek, which made winter shopping brisk in the 50,000-square-foot facility.
Other businesses included a beer distributor, sporting goods store, warehouse, drug and tobacco outlet and a restaurant that featured full dinners for under a dollar.
Sullivan D'Amico once joked that Dunbar was "the second-worst location in the world. I'm sure there's one somewhere that's worse than this, but I don't know where it is."
"I was about 12 when I worked there," said John Tristani, of Dunbar Township. "Just about everybody (from around here) worked there at some point."
Rick Adobato, Fayette EMS director of operations, said that no workers or firefighters were injured. American Ambulance also was at the scene.
Jerry Long, a scrap contractor from Ohio, was working with a crew in the far north section of the shopping village when the fire began. They have been on site since May 16. "We bought the counters from the grocery store. We buy scrap metals, copper, iron, coolers. We had almost everything out of the burning area two weeks ago. We've been working up top."
When Long and his workers came out of the north building, "we saw a lot of smoke and high flames out here."
D'Amico Jr. is planning on opening a restaurant at Laurel Mall called Pechin Firehouse Cafe to honor his grandfather's love of fire trucks.
Sullivan D'Amico opened the grocery store in 1947. The Pechin cafeteria was famous for its nickel cups of coffee and its 19-cent hamburgers. Senior citizens ate for free on Mondays.
Sullivan D'Amico died in February 2005 at 87.
Chuck Brittain can be reached at cbrittain@tribweb.com or 724-834-1151.
