PRINCEVILLE — Less than a year after the building reopened, A&M Mini-Mart was severely damaged by a fire early Tuesday, and the blaze is under investigation.

A driver passing by on Main Street called about the fire at 3:57 a.m. Tuesday, Princeville Fire Chief Billy Boddie said. He said it appeared the fire "had been burning a while" before fire and rescue personnel arrived on the scene to douse the flames.

It took around an hour to contain the fire, Boddie said. No injuries were reported.

"It's looking a little suspicious," according to an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the fire chief said. There was a State Bureau of Investigation truck parked outside the store later Tuesday morning.

The store, which used to be a beauty salon and car lot, is at the corner of Main Street and Mullins Street.

All the merchandise inside the store, worth more than $10,000, was deemed a total loss, and fire crews were continuing to assess whether the building itself could be salvaged.

A&M Mini-Mart owner Aseed Ismail of Wilson said the business opened around New Year's.

Asked his future plans, Ismail, 25, emphatically said that he would work to get the business reopened, "as soon as they clear all this (equipment) out" from the property. "I don't know how much work I've got to put into it" to get it reopened, but he said that it would definitely open back up as soon as possible.

"Everybody's sad that this happened. They loved the store" is the response he has gotten from people in the community so far about his business, Ismail added.

Ismail was operating the business on a five-year lease. He called the Princeville store "the real moneymaker" for him, as he owns and operates two other convenience stores in Goldsboro and Farmville.

Volunteer fire departments from Leggett, Heartsease, Conetoe and Speed, as well as the West Edgecombe Volunteer Fire Department and the Edgecombe County Rescue Squad, responded to the fire along with Princeville.