Owners of burned strip mall shops finding new places to go

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Bedford County strip mall destroyed by fire - June 20, 2009

Clean-up begins after Bedford Co. strip mall fire - June 21, 2009

 

Two days after a fire destroyed a mall in Forest, business owners are still at the scene. Jeff Gray sifted through the mess of what used to be his skate shop, picking up hunks of metal.

“I was supposed to be fixing a computer for my church and it got burned in the fire,” Gray said,  who owns Scene 3 Board Shop.

Throughout the clean-up, there’s an even bigger job ahead – figuring out where to go next. Davy Hazelgrove owns Blackwater Bike Shop.

“We’ve certainly been spending a good bit of today going around looking at alternate locations, talking to our insurance company and adjuster,” Hazelgrove said.

10 On Your Side talked to the property manager of the building and asked what happens from here. He said all that depends on what the fire department and the insurance companies find in their investigations.

Bedford County Fire Marshal, John Jennings walked around the building to come up with answers. He’s looking for people who took pictures of the back of the building just after the fire broke out and before the fire department responded. Those could help solve the puzzle.
   
“We’re hoping they’ll call Bedford Fire and Rescue and let us know, and we’ll take a look at those also,” Jennings said.

Gray already planned to move into another building, but there was a holdup with the permits. Now, he said, that building may be ready by the weekend.
   
It’s giving both Gray and Hazelgrove a chance to expand.

“We’ve been growing fast and needing more room,” Hazelgrove said. 

The fire marshal said he hopes to announce a cause of the fire by the end of the week.  He wouldn’t say if the fire was intentional or accidental.

Also, Monday, the community rallied together at a routine “Root Beer Ride,“ a bicycle ride throughout Bedford County that usually ends with root beer floats to cool them off. They decided to go ahead with the ride to lighten the mood. It meant a lot for Hazelgrove.

“People really enjoy it. And we thought, what a great way to show that we’re not stopping for this than to go ahead and do it again tonight,“ he said.