WINDSOR -- When a fire breaks out, it doesn't hurt when the local fire chief is just steps away from the scene.

For the owners of Rideout's Market and Grille, the result today was minor damage after a fire started behind the convenience store and restaurant on Route 17. The building's restaurant portion, the part of the structure closest to the blaze, will re-open Tuesday.

Owner Jerry Rideout said he was working in the store's office when the fire began.

"A customer came in and said, 'you have flames coming over the roof,'" he said. "It was shooting probably 20-, 30-foot flames."

When Rideout called to report the fire, Windsor Fire Chief Arthur Strout was just down the road on Route 32 at the Windsor Fairgrounds.

"She looked bad at first," he said. "That trailer was pretty well ignited when we got here."

The flames appeared to start in a small trailer with broken-down cardboard boxes, Strout said.

The fire chief, Rideout and store employees began attacking the flames with three fire extinguishers and by piling snow onto the trailer. The flames charred only a wall in the rear of the building, Rideout said. The building sustained no interior damage.

"We didn't get any smoke out here," Rideout said of the front portion of the store. "Still no fun, though."

Firefighters from Jefferson, Somerville and Whitefield arrived on the scene to help Windsor firefighters combat the blaze. It took the firefighters approximately 30 minutes to extinguish the fire, Strout said.

"Another half an hour, she'd have been going good," Strout said.

Rideout said the blaze broke out at noon.

Neither Strout nor Rideout could point to a cause for the blaze.

"It doesn't make any sense," Rideout said.