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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fire Victims Are Rising From Ashes Engraver, Artist Suffer Different Damages

It was the same fire, but Ron Green and James Lavigne suffered very different losses when flames swept through their downtown workspace.

Green’s face was burned.

Lavigne lost irreplaceable artwork.

Parent Engraving, Green’s business, is still a hollowed cinder, shadowed in soot.

Lavigne’s neighboring art studio looks the same.

The two Spokane men are doing their best to rise from the ashes of the June 19 fire at 819-1/2 W. Riverside that could have easily ruined them, or worse.

That afternoon, Green was cutting small magnesium plates when his saw sparked.

The resulting fireball gave him second- and first-degree burns to his face and arms. It also destroyed most of his engraving equipment.

Green, hands wrapped in gauze, now spends his days at home, ordering new machinery and trying to do his bookkeeping. He’s healing well, but he can’t drive a car yet.

“I’ve been fortunate,” Green said. “I suffered a little economic loss, but the burns really weren’t that bad. I’m just glad we were insured and no one else was hurt.”

Parent Engraving has been housed on the second floor of the 104-year-old building since 1924.

Since the fire, a crew from Larson’s Demolition has been scooping up bags of ash and dropping it off a second-story window into a truck. Salvageable furniture is being cleaned and stored until renovations are complete.

Not only will ceiling and floor joists, carpets, walls, plumbing and electrical wires be replaced, but fire-resistent improvements will be added during remodeling, said building owner Jerry Kofhmel.

Most of the damage was caused by smoke and water.

That was merciful for Green, who was able to salvage possessions other than industrial tools.

But for Lavigne, a little smoke and water is all it took to ruin over 50 original works, including a New York Stock Exchange piece that took 300 hours to paint in 1986.

While he wasn’t hurt in the fire, he was in his studio at the time.

He still gets nauseous thinking about his biggest loss: a half-finished 6-foot by 14-foot painting of a biplane flying under the Monroe Street Bridge.

“That made me vomit,” Lavigne said.

Hot lead dripped and daggers of broken glass rained on the painting from a fire-blasted skylight.

The painting was scheduled to be unveiled in the STA Plaza in November.

Despite being forced to start over, Lavigne still plans on making that deadline. First, however, he has to find a new studio.

Green expects his business to be down for 60 to 90 days, but he’s optimistic about the future.

“The (building) owner sees this as an opportunity to re-do the ceiling and floors,” Green said. “I guess if there’s a silver lining around this thing, it’s that the living space will be cleaner and safer.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo