From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 4, 1974:

Fire earlier this week had destroyed the Dillon Supermarket and Calhoun’s Department Store in the Dillon Plaza Shopping Center at 1800 Massachusetts. Loss to the two stores was described as “total” by Fire Chief F. C. Sanders, Keith Lucas, Dillon manager, and James Myers, Calhoun manager. Stock loss at the supermarket was estimated at about $125,000. Officials of both stores pledged to rebuild “bigger and betters” stores and to begin construction as soon as possible. The blaze had started near the southeast corner of Dillon’s in an area above the refrigerator compressor room, according to Fire Chief Sanders. Electrical malfunction was the probable cause, he said. A firewall between Calhoun’s and the Raney Plaza Drug Store had probably prevented fire damage at any of the other stores in the shopping center, officials said. Sanders said that low water pressure at a fire hydrant across the street from the plaza had hampered the initial efforts of firefighters and had possibly contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. The blaze had broken through the roof of Dillon’s when fire and police units first arrived, and the blaze was out of control before the trucks had gotten into position. The other stores in the plaza as well as several private homes in the area had been filled with smoke.