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Bedford County strip mall destroyed by fire - June 20, 2009
New home video obtained by WSLS shows flames ripping through all five businesses of the Jefferson Business Center, a strip mall in Bedford County's Forest area.
Business owners spent Sunday sifting through the mess that the fire left behind.
Jeff Gray owns Scene 3 Skate Shop, and has been in business at the Forest location eight years. Gray's store had just closed when he got the call to come back.
"This little kid I know called and said 'your shop's on fire'. And I said 'you are kidding me.' I rushed over here and saw the smoke and had this feeling," Gray said.
Jeff tells me he lost about $20,000 worth of inventory in Saturday night's fire. But, it's sentimental things like his snowboard, and memories he had on DVDs at the store that will be missed the most.
Stephen Gray, Jeff's brother, found old photo albums of the two over the years. The pages are melted together, and not many can be saved.
Across town, Sarah Gray showed me the new shop that her husband was supposed to move into a few weeks ago. Trouble with permits held up the move. She still can't believe what happened Saturday.
"I was in complete shock. I can't believe that everything burned down so fast," Sarah said.
Davy Hazelgrove, owner of Blackwater Bike Shop, was working late Saturday night. He says attempts to control the fire that started near his back deck, did not work.
"(I) ran to the back door, saw smoke and some fire through the seams. Touched the door, saw it was getting warm, ran to another exit, and went out there and got a water hose on it," Hazelgrove told me.
He also feels some pretty personal losses.
"I just recently pulled out a tricycle that has been in my family since the 1950's. I rode it when I was a kid, all my cousins rode it, my aunt rode it. I restored it, and had it hanging up in the shop. It is somewhat intact, you can at least see what it was," Davy told me.
Some things were lost forever, but some items were saved.
As Jeff and Davy picked up the pieces of what's left of their businesses, they said the fire will not discourage them.
"We are gonna keep going. This is obviously a major setback but we'll be back for sure."
Davy says he has insurance, but Jeff was between insurance policies, meaning he will take a big hit on inventory.
While I was at the store today, someone dropped off an anonymous $500 donation to Jeff.
Bedford County fire investigators were still searching for what caused the fire as of Sunday evening.
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