From Ashes To … Starting Over Devastating Fires Underscore The Need For Businesses To Take Precautions

When arsonists torched a downtown Spokane family business, an airy artist’s loft of silk screens and paint tubes became “a total madhouse” in a matter of hours, said Nick Linden, whose father’s company burned down last month.

“This is still a total shock,” said Linden, vice president of Vic B. Linden and Sons, S122 Lincoln. The store that his father founded in 1946 has been in the same downtown location for 45 years.

“Your whole life flashes in front of your eyes when you hear that your business has gone up in flames,” he said.

Linden is not alone. Fires erupted at 23 Spokane businesses in the past six months, according to Fire Department records. When fire trucks pulled away, owners began sweeping up the ashes of irretrievable tax records, customer files and computer disks - not to mention memories and generations of work.

At least 90 percent of companies in Spokane return to business after fires, according to records. But each business must first surmount a daunting tangle of insurance claims, cleaning crews, postponed orders, lost clients and charred equipment.

Leonard Hamilton, for example, has nothing to show for 40 years of manufacturing work except a pair of pliers and a screwdriver.

“And things were such a mess after the fire, I think I even lost the pliers,” joked Hamilton, whose business burned down two days before Thanksgiving.

Hamilton owns Turbo Burn Inc., E4225 Joseph, the only builder of water stoves in Spokane County. His patented product uses water to transfer heat through a modified plumbing scheme capable of heating homes, pools and water supplies.

Hamilton hopes to get back to work in a month, but admits the date keeps getting postponed because the insurance money will not even cover the cost of the major tools.

“There’s no way you can insure yourself for 40 years of work,” he said.

That’s one reason it’s important for business owners to equip their buildings with safety equipment such as security and sprinkler systems.

Police and fire officials recommend such preventative measures. But many small businesses say that’s a luxury they can’t afford. And the equipment isn’t always practical.

For example, an overheated circuit caused the blaze at Turbo Burn, which spread quickly throughout Hamilton’s wood-framed shop. Smoke detectors were never of any use at Turbo Burn because routine welding caused a stream of smoke that would have set off beepers constantly, he said.

Hamilton added that a sprinkler system is prohibitively expensive, considering that all his savings and profits will go to buying tools and cleaning up the shop.

But installing a sprinkler system is cheap compared to the total worth of a business, Fire Marshall Garry Miller said. Too many businesses skimp on preventative measures such as sprinklers or smoke detectors, undermining personal safety, liability and the efforts of firefighters.

Considering the increasing prevalence of arson-related fires downtown, no business can afford not to install technologically advanced fire detectors and security devices, he said.

Sprinkler installation in an existing building costs $2 per square foot; a new building is 70 cents per square foot. Prices of security systems range from the relatively cheap (steel bars on doors and windows facing the street) to the exorbitantly expensive (computerized systems using lasers and heat sensing devices to detect burglars).

“But in the long run, both are cheaper than the inconvenience and tremendous expense of a fire,” Miller said.

The fire at Sign Advertising was one of three that vandals set downtown Dec. 16, fire officials said. Neighbors who watched the fire on the late-night news alerted Linden to the blaze, which took three engine companies and two ladder trucks to extinguish.

At the same time, a security guard from a neighboring restaurant used a fire extinguisher to douse flames at Sweet Cravings, W1414 Third.

“We were lucky; it was a pretty small fire,” said owner Janet Dawson, who bought the company four months ago. Damage estimates run as high as $3,000, and the bakery - which specializes in gourmet desserts - wasn’t able to operate at maximum production during the holidays.

Linden can’t even begin to quantify how much he lost. One corner of the artists’ loft alone will cost more than $50,000 to restructure and clean.

More than the cost of construction (which is covered by the company’s insurance policy), Linden fears lost customers.

“All the jobs that were in progress have to be redone, and so we can’t get back with people as fast as usual,” Linden said. “We’re trying to stay on top of the customers, but we have customers leaving who just couldn’t wait.”

Despite losses, the owners learned pertinent lessons as a result of the fires.

Both will invest in dual security/ smoke detector systems. Previously, Linden’s business only had smoke beepers, and Dawson had nothing.

Sign Advertising is now considering a sprinkler system, and Sweet Cravings - which was burglarized less than a week before the fire - will install a security system as well as high-tech sensors that detect rapid heat rise.

These should be standard, preventative tactics in any building, the fire marshal said.

“If people added up the cost of insurance, damage, rebuilding the building and trying to gain back lost business, maybe high-tech systems and sprinklers would seem more appealing,” Miller said.

Additional measures - such as flood lighting and security systems that dial directly to a central reporting agency - may also prevent arson.

“As urban areas suffer more crime, you’re starting to see businesses with advanced technological systems more and more, in addition to iron gates and barricades,” Miller said.

With brighter lighting and a new burglary/fire system, Dawson is confident about Sweet Cravings’ security. When asked about what the fire taught her, she laughed.

“I know this sounds funny, but the most important thing I learned is that the people of Spokane are wonderful,” Dawson said. “We had people off the street who came in and offered to help clean, and we had bakers offering to work for free.

“When we were down and out and very depressed, the people here reaffirmed my faith that not everyone is bad,” she said.

By contrast, Linden admitted it’s difficult to remain positive when vandals torch the work that his parents, brothers and sister-in-law have built over six decades.

“Unfortunately the neighborhood is going downhill, and this is a ramification of that,” Linden said as he gestured to the wood skeleton that used to be the reception area.

He noted that the lights beneath a nearby viaduct are burned out and have not been replaced, despite his calls to the city and Washington Water Power Co.

“But we don’t want to move. The store grew up here and we’re attached to the area,” he said. “We could get guards or dogs, but that doesn’t fit the way we want to run a business.

“We’re not going to let this (fire) close us down,” he said. The company has transferred calls to Vic Linden’s home during reconstruction.

“We’ve had so much luck here in the past, we wouldn’t ever have thought that this would happen. We trusted the neighborhood. We don’t anymore.”