ST. PAUL — A beloved local butcher has died in a fire at a food market in St. Paul.

Fire marshal Steve Zaccard said the man was in the basement at Stasny’s Food Market when the fire was reported about 1:30 a.m. Thursday. Some tenants who lived above the market awoke to the smell of smoke and called authorities.

The market’s owner, Jim Stasny, identified the man as 77-year-old Stu Gerr, who worked as a butcher at the store. Stasney said Gerr sometimes stayed there because he lived in Deer River, about 200 miles away.

Gerr had been a butcher for 63 years. He previously worked at Capitol City Meat Market, near the Capitol, before that store closed in 2010.

The fire marshal is investigating the fire’s cause.