Fire investigators are trying to figure out what sparked a blaze that destroyed a longtime family-owned business in Olympia.
Three decades of hard work and dedication at Johnson’s Smokehouse and Sausage Kitchen were reduced to charred rubble in a matter of hours.
Firefighters were called to the business along the 8300 block of Diagonal Road Southeast around 11:45 p.m. Saturday.
Now their future is uncertain.
“When I came up to the store there were flames 35 to 40 feet in the air, my heart dropped,” said Ron Johnson, owner of Johnson’s Smokehouse and Sausage Kitchen.
Ron and his wife Sue Johnson started the business in 1983 processing game for farmer and hunters.
36 years later the company is operated as a USDA-approved facility processing smoked meats, cheeses and their popular trail mix to sell to retails stores nationwide.