City Health Division inspectors shut down the Family Dollar store at 995 Blue Hill Ave. near Franklin Field on Thursday for a laundry list of code violations, including rats in the store observed to have eaten food on the shelves and having two-feet of standing water sitting stagnant in the basement – among other violations.

The store will remain closed until violations are corrected, a hearing is requested, the store passes a follow-up inspection – a process that typically takes between two and five days.

“Right away, I could get a smell that there was an issue in there,” said Tom McAdams, director of the Health Division in the Inspectional Services Department (ISD). “I’ve been doing this 29 years and could smell there was a rodent issue as soon as I walked in the door…We don’t take it lightly to close a place, but they needed it, and we didn’t think it was safe for the public for them to operate the store in this manner.”

Representatives from the Family Dollar corporate headquarters in North Carolina instructed The Reporter to send an email requesting comment, and they didn’t immediately respond to that email on Friday.

They faced one foodbourne illness risk intervention violation, three critical violations, and six non-critical violations. Pest control to eliminate rodent infestation was one major issue, as was the water issues in the basement – apparently caused by a sump pump that had been disconnected and never fixed. Eliminating clutter and performing a deep cleaning to make the store look new was also required.

McAdams and other ISD officials said there had been many chances for the store, and in fact they had already had a hearing on the rodent conditions this year and had been prohibited temporarily from selling food. However, recent posts on Facebook and other social media of the store conditions piqued the interest of ISD Commissioner Tania Del Rio and others, who asked that inspectors go out and help the store get back into compliance.

McAdams said they found thick dust on the shelves, an unkempt and dirty store, and rodent droppings on the window sills – as well as food still on the shelves that had been chewed through by rodents. Meanwhile, under the shelves, inspectors and employees found food stored by rodents and nesting conditions.

While some corporate stores hire outside cleaning companies, employees told inspectors that they perform all the cleaning duties daily from 6-8 a.m. before opening.

“It became clear to me they couldn’t do this on their own,” said McAdams, who noted that he elevated the matter to the corporate headquarters to get a team out fast.

A notice posted on the front door of the Family Dollar on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester proclaimed the store closed until health violations were corrected.

To get the store back open, all violations will have to be corrected, and pest control services must present a report, adherence to the suggestions, and a cleaning schedule. The store would then request a hearing, and typically those hearings happen quickly. The final piece would be an on-site inspection to make sure things are actually corrected.

“We use compliance by assistance,” he said. “We want to get out there and say to them, ‘Look at that!’ and the store is clean and how it should be on a daily basis…The community will love it. The staff will love it. It will be like new, clean and sanitary and organized. It’s tough to do this, but in this case we had to do it to protect public health.”

McAdams said the building owner was called out during the inspection and was able to fix the sump pump and begin pumping the water out of the basement.

The store remained closed down on Friday, and it was expected Family Dollar might request a hearing on Monday after a weekend of efforts to come into compliance.