Fire Destroys Strip Mall
posted 06/20/09
10:41 pm
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Forest, VA -
One lane of traffic is set to reopen on Route 221 between Graves Mill Road and Cotton town Roads after 11 p.m. Saturday night. Bedford County fire fighters say every store in the Jefferson Business Center is a total loss. Fortunately there are no injuries or death, but several families experienced the pain of watching years of hard work go up in smoke. Firefighters as powerless to stop the flames as the families who lost more than just a shop.
Vicky Horton, Healthy Inspirations - "I feel like we lost so much. It just wasn't a business, it was like a family."
Healthy inspirations was one of the several business gutted by the fire. Witnesses say the fire began as a small porch fire, behind Black Water Bike that Lynchburg, Bedford County and Campbell County crews responded to around 6 p.m. Jessica Pham, who was in her family's store, California Nails, remembers the panic.
Jessica Pham, Family Owns California Nails - "The bicycle shop caught on fire and dad ran outside and people started coming over and telling us to get out. So we ran and left everything in there. And things just started exploding.".
When crews arrived minutes later, they were facing enormous flames and it didn't take long to spread.
Chief Todd Styles, Forest Fire Dept. - "It may look a small fire on the outside, but once it makes it into the soffet areas of these buildings, its wide open in the roof."
Fire fighters say all the people managed to make it out of this building without being hurt. But the cars in the parking lot might not be as lucky.
Chief Todd Styles, Forest Fire Dept. - "The radiant heat out of something like this is putting off a lot of BTU's."
The Phams managed to pull their car from the flames, but California Nails, whose sign now sits on this car, didn't make it.
Julie Pham, Works At California Nails - "Everything we got, that's our workplace, our livelihood. Now everything went up in flames and so fast."
Years of work: now just ashes.
Fire fighters say they won't be able to start to determine the cause of the fire until early Sunday morning. They have wait for the rubble to cool down before they can start searching. We're still waiting on official word on how many businesses were located in Jefferson Center. So far we know the following businesses were affected: The Virginia Farm Bureau, Scene 3 Skateboard Shop, Black Water Bike, California Nails and Healthy Inspirations.
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