Four Wheels For Food: Alliance pantry finds itself in need after fire destroys only truck - The-review

Four Wheels For Food: Alliance pantry finds itself in need after fire destroys only truck - The-review
Review staff report

Since opening its doors in 2010, the Alliance Community Pantry has provided millions of pounds of food to the hungry. However, after a fire totaled the organization’s only truck Wednesday morning, the group finds itself in need.

City firefighters were dispatched to the pantry parking lot around 10:40 a.m. Wednesday in the area of Main Street and Mechanic Avenue for a vehicle fire.

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According to Glenn Rupp, a board member who oversees facilities, a two-man crew was backing the truck into the parking lot after a trip to the Akron-Canton Foodbank when the brake light came on. Shortly after the front seat became hot and smoke started pouring out from under the hood.

The occupants of the vehicle jumped out and grabbed a fire extinguisher from inside the building as the flames soon followed. An employee from Alliance Loan blocks away saw the fire on a security camera and an employee grabbed the store’s large fire extinguisher and came down to the scene and fire crews were called.

Per a post to the pantry’s Facebook page, neither occupant of the vehicle was hurt nor was 6,100 pounds of food on the truck destroyed.

“An electrical problem is the suspected cause of the sudden fire. The truck is a total loss and will be towed to a salvage yard soon. In the meantime, we will have to lease a truck until we can purchase a quality used truck to replace it.”

There had been no trouble with the truck, which had been covered by insurance; however, Pantry officials expect that the payoff will not cover full replacement of the truck. Early estimates put that number in excess of $24,000, much less than this truck’s purchase price several years ago.

To lease a truck will cost $700 per week or approximately $2,800 per month, Rupp said.

Donations can be sent to the Alliance Community Pantry, P.O. Box 2581, Alliance 44601. Checks should be made out to the Alliance Community Pantry with Four Wheels for Food fund written on the memo line.