Thursday, November 14, started like any other day at the family-owned FloorCraft store on Route 11 in Wilmot, just over the Andover line. But by mid-afternoon, the store’s warehouse, across the parking lot from the showroom, was gone, consumed by a raging fire that sent flames 30 feet into the unseasonably cold November air.

Wilmot Fire Department, assisted by area mutual-aid fire departments including Andover Fire Department, responded to the four-alarm blaze. One lane of Route 11 had to be closed while firefighters battled not just the fire, but the threat of ice accumulating due to temperatures in the 20s.

Andover’s Emergency Services Auxiliary was also on the scene with pizza and coffee to keep the responders fed and hydrated.

“Thankfully, no one was hurt,” said Tobyn Olson, who owns Floorcraft with her husband Ken. The fire consumed not only the warehouse, but all the materials stored in it. So Ken and his whole team immediately began scrambling to reorder everything so as to impact their customers’ projects as little as possible.

“And now, thanks to our wonderful, dedicated employees and suppliers, we are back to business as usual,” Ken and Tobyn are happy to report.

FloorCraft has been part of the local community for 27 years. Ken’s parents, Carl and Gail Olson, started the business in New London in 1992. The firm moved to Route 11 in Wilmot in 1995 in order to have a larger showroom and warehouse space. Ken and Tobyn joined the business in 2001, and in 2012 they became the owners.

The state Fire Marshal’s office investigated the origin of the fire, but could not find a definitive source. Tobyn indicates that the company plans to build a new warehouse in the spring.