EPHRATA, Pa. (WHTM) — At least 45 fire companies and about 200 firefighters are responding to the scene of a building fire in Ephrata, Lancaster County this morning.

Officials say they were called to the scene at Martin’s Country Market on the 1700 block of West Main Street in Ephrata Township just before 4 a.m.

Upon arrival, crews say they found moderate smoke coming from the rear of the building and actions were immediately taken to begin fighting the fire. Officials say while the building did not have a sprinkler system, there is a hydrant system in that area of Ephrata Township.

At this point, officials say the fire is contained but not yet under control. Police are asking the public to avoid the area as firefighters remain on scene.

The cause of the fire remains unknown. Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshals are investigating.

The fire is expected to be a multi-million dollar loss. One minor, initial injury was reported due to an individual slipping on ice.

Martin’s Country Market Corporation CEO, Jay Martin and Martin’s Country Market President, Nevin Martin were also on scene this morning.

“We would just like to say a big thank you to all the volunteers, all fire department and emergency people. It’s just incredible, the overwhelming amount of response from the emergency management people, the fire department, EMS, everybody on site. It certainly would be our prayer that no one gets hurt through this,” Jay Martin said.

Both the CEO and the president said that their goal moving forward is to take care of the 120 employees employed by the market.

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“[A] building can be replaced, contents of the building can be replaced. [If] somebody gets hurt in something like this that cannot be replaced. We’re grateful for that. Our number one goal right now is to take of our employees that we do have and get them situated the best that we can without a financial difficulty in their lives,” Nevin Martin said.

The market shared to Facebook this morning that it will now be closed indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild.

“We had a setback but we’re not going to let that ruin the path forward,” Nevin Martin said.

He added that moving forward, the market hopes to reopen as soon as possible

“Our goal would be to get up and running and open as quickly as we can. We have a large customer support in this community that we want to continue to meet that need in the future but it’s obvious as of today we cannot,” he said.

This is a developing story. Stay with abc27 News as more information becomes available

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