Article Photos

What had been billed as West Virginia's largest gift shop is now a pile of ashes, debris and a crime scene. Two fires occurring on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning gutted the building that housed the Smoke Hole Caverns gift shop and restaurant, located along Route 55 between Seneca Rocks and Petersburg.

Petersburg Fire Chief Tad Ours said "very suspicious circumstances" surround the blazes at the building located beside Smoke Hole Cavern and the business' log motel.

Fire crews were alerted to the first blaze around 7 p.m. Tuesday, Ours said. It appeared as though the first fire began on the side of the building where the restaurant was located, according to Ours. Fire departments left the scene around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and were called back at approximately 5 a.m. Wednesday to what had been described as a rekindle of the first fire. However when crews arrived, they found the entire building fully involved, Ours explained. The second blaze was under control around 8 a.m. Wednesday, he said. To Ours' knowledge there were no occupants in the building at the time the fires began.

Smoke Hole Caverns' co-owner Jerry Lee Hedrick is currently serving a two- to 10-year sentence in the Potomac Highlands Regional Jail after he was found guilty in October of two felony charges of first-degree sexual assault of a former female employee. His wife, Janet, who is also a co-owner of the business, was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

The area where the Smoke Hole Caverns gift shop once stood is being treated as a crime scene, Ours said. The state fire marshal and Grant County Sheriff's Department are investigating the fires.

Petersburg Fire Department was assisted by the Moorefield, Maysville, Seneca Rocks, Mt. Storm and Upper Tract volunteer fire departments.