The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
'It was unreal'
Businesses bounce back after fire
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 8, 2008
After 24 hours the smell of smoke and charred debris still hung in the air, joined by the roar of fans running full-blast to erase the damage done to businesses in the Chelsea Shopping Center, the scene of Monday's spectacular fire.
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The three-alarm blaze was reported at 12:46 p.m. on the roof above Aleko's Carryout and Hicks Cleaners.
High winds quickly spread the flames to neighboring businesses but thanks to quick action by a regiment of firefighters from a half-dozen departments, many businesses in the strip mall picked up Tuesday where they left off.
Firefighters were able to stop the blaze from spreading beyond Pamida on the west and the Chelsea Grille on the east.
No firefighters or civilians were reported injured in Chelsea's biggest structure fire in recent memory.
Customers and employees were evacuated from all the stores at about the same time the fire was called in.
After the all-clear was given by fire officials at about 3 p.m., insurance adjusters, clean-up crews and contractors went to work surveying the damage.
Like most of the businesses affected by the fire, the Chelsea Grille was not affected by fire but suffered smoke and water damage.
"Chelsea Grille's insurance carrier called us," said Ray Eddy of Southfield-based Statewide Disaster Restoration.
"We're going to pull down the hazardous stuff, make sure everything is safe and secure, extract the water and clean things up.
"Realistically, it should be able to open up in several weeks."
Jerry Gordinier of JG Squared electrical contractors in Chelsea was going from business to business, checking on circuit breakers before the city Electric Department restored service to the building.
"We're doing restoration on parts of this," Gordinier said, adding that he was subcontracted to Statewide Disaster Restoration.
"We don't normally do this kind of thing, but we're a local company and want to help out," he said.
"We're going to get them some power so they can get their dryers going and they can sort things out."
Frank Belloma, general manager of Belfor Property Restoration of Ann Arbor, was supervising a crew boarding up windows at Aleko's and Liberty Tax Service.
"We are securing these buildings here," he said, indicating the entire area between Chelsea Grille and Pamida where the majority of the damage occurred.
"We're just securing the front doors - there was no fire damage, it's just a matter of cleanup," he added.
On Tuesday, if one ignored the workmen covering the damaged section of the roof with huge blue tarps and shoveling the blackened debris into dumpsters, you would think it was business as usual.
At Pamida, the store itself remained closed Tuesday but the garden center in the parking lot was open for business.
"The firemen did a heck of a job putting it out," said District Manager Brad Mellang.
"We had a little bit of water, but very little damage otherwise.
"I've had everything else happen, like tornadoes, but never a fire — and I don't think I ever want to do it again," he added.
Perhaps most surprising, a banner proclaiming "Yes! We're Open!" hung above the entrance to the Chelsea Pharmacy.
Debris had been swept to each side and yellow tape was strung to lead customers up to the front doors.
"We lost our (greeting) cards, but it was not as bad as it could have been," said cashier Cathy Moore
Manager Tom McKernan was grateful for his good fortune to be almost fully in operation with a minimum of disruption.
"It's phenomenal -I don't know how the flames didn't get in, you can see daylight coming through the roof up front," he said.
"All in all, looking at our neighbors, we're very fortunate."
He said the pharmacy received offers of help from other local pharmacies and businesses in town, and his employees "all pulled together."
"'Weird' is not a strong enough word to describe how I feel," McKernan said.
"The challenge is to convince people that we're still open, and still serving customers."
On the other side of the damage zone, Chelsea Grille general manager Rob Hohnke was behind the bar doing an inventory of everything he'll have to throw away.
"I'm just glad everything for the most part was saved and nobody got hurt," he said.
Monday was Hohnke's day off and he was running errands in the area when he saw the towering black smoke and hurried to his restaurant to find about 20 customers and nine employees safely in the parking lot.
"I was absolutely sick about it," he said. "I can't believe how quickly it spread."
The restaurant will have to get rid of all its food items except canned goods, and all open liquor and wine bottles, beer kegs and taps; about $6,000 to $8,000 in food and beverages.
Theresa Shackelford, the restaurant's controller, was there at the time of the fire.
"It was unreal," she said. "You just don't think it's going to happen to you.
"As long as no one was hurt, that's the most important thing."
Shackelford said her main concern now is how to take care of employees while the restaurant is closed down.
"I just hope the people of Chelsea don't forget about us."
That shouldn't be a problem, though; two women came though the open doors at about 2 p.m. asking if the place was open, because they had "traveled all the way from East Lansing to eat here."
At Anytime Fitness on the west side of the complex, Allison Sayers said the business was not damaged at all and her five customers evacuated quickly before the power was shut off.
"It was fine; some guy who was just leaving came back and told us about the fire," she said.
"There was no water damage, it was just a little smoky and our ventilation system took care of that."
On the South Main Street side, Chobie Shedwell, operations manager for Chelsea Rare Coins, initially thought word of the fire was a prank.
"My partner called and told me there was smoke coming out of the building and I said 'yeah, right,'" he said.
"I went outside and looked and, sure enough, there was the fire, so I turned around and locked the door and waited out in the parking lot with everybody else."
Next door at Dayspring Gifts, manager Sandy Gasiewski expressed remorse for the losses caused by the fire.
"I feel bad for Aleko's, he's only been open for a few months," she said.
"I feel bad for everyone, because they are an important part of the local economy."
Gasiewski said she was "terribly upset" by the fire.
"I've never seen anything like it; it was terribly upsetting to me and my employees to watch it happen."
By 4 p.m. Tuesday fire officials still had not confirmed the cause but were working on a theory.
"Right now they are leaning toward electrical," Payeur said Tuesday. "The state fire marshal will be in town (Wednesday), and we'll ask him to take a look at it."
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