Operations were largely uninterrupted at Jerry’s Electric, a transformer production company, just northeast of Colman this past week despite a fire in the main building late Monday evening, July 8.
Flames were seen coming through the roof by a neighbor and a passerby around 9:00 p.m., but the company’s fire alarm company had already alerted the owners there was a problem.
While a cause remains undetermined, what is known is that the fire started in the welding room.
“We are super blessed and fortunate that it wasn’t worse, but we also have so many precautions in place where we don’t keep stuff in certain areas that might be a risk,” General Manager Jerry Boulais said.

The welding room, he added, is shut down daily at least 30 minutes prior to the business closing, so that they purposely don’t have to worry about equipment having problems once everyone has left for the night.
Fire crews from Colman, Flandreau, Trent, and Brookings all responded along with the Moody County Ambulance and Sheriff. Teams remained on the scene for nearly five hours, Colman Fire Chief Jason Landis said.
Boulais, who is the third generation of the family to run the business, said their team was very lucky in that the damages were minimal, and they were minimal due to the quick response of so many first responders to the scene.
Coming over the hill that night, Boulais said all he could think about was how much time and dedication had gone into building the business and his heart initially just sank. He is incredibly grateful for firefighters and the greater Moody County community for all of the support they’ve shown.
Boulais’ grandfather, Jerry Craig Boulais, started the business in 1976.
The company, he added, is taking it on to make all of the repairs themselves.