November 8, 2004

Fire damage at strip mall could hit $1 Million

       Greenwood firefighters were confronted by a massive fireball and smoke reaching heights of 1,000 feet when they arrived at an eastside strip mall this weekend.  Three businesses were gutted by the Saturday morning fire. Two more businesses were damaged by smoke and water.  No one was inside the businesses at the time, and no one was injured, Greenwood Fire Chief Steve Dhondt said.  Starting at 7 a.m. Saturday, nearly 100 calls came into the Greenwood Fire Department from people reporting the enormous blaze at Vista Run, at the northwest corner of East Main Street and Emerson Avenue, Dhondt said.  Investigators still hadn't found the cause of the blaze Sunday afternoon, but it started in one of the three businesses destroyed in the L-shaped strip mall that has nearly 20 shops and restaurants, Dhondt said.  A preliminary damage estimate is $500,000 to $1 million.

         A total of 90 firefighters and more than a dozen fire trucks - from Greenwood, White River Township, Whiteland, New Whiteland and Franklin in Johnson County and Franklin Township, Indianapolis and Perry Township in Marion County - fought the blaze for about an hour.  The destroyed businesses - Blake's Photography, Drive Zone and DM's Designers Salon and Day Spa - were engulfed in smoke and fire when firefighters arrived. Crews secured the north and south ends of the strip mall to prevent the fire from spreading before aerial trucks doused and extinguished the flames, Dhondt said.  Firewalls built with drywall that extend from the stores' attics to the building's roof helped prevent the flames from spreading rapidly, Dhondt said.  Neighboring businesses Nu-U Tan & Tone and Beazer Mortgage received extensive damage.  Business owners are left to determine where they will temporarily relocate until the charred debris is cleared away and the strip mall rebuilt.  "We're not going to roll over," said Tom Zachary, co-owner and president of Drive Zone.  Zachary learned of the fire about 8 a.m. Saturday when he received a phone call from a friend who drove by the strip mall and noticed the flames and smoke that were seen by some as far away as Indianapolis.  "It looked like a bomb had been dropped," Zachary said in describing what he saw when he arrived at the strip mall about 15 minutes later.  Everything inside the driving school was destroyed, with the exception of the keys to two cars used for lessons. The heat from the nearby flames melted the plastic on the side mirrors of both vehicles but caused no other damage.  Firefighters parked one fire truck between the two cars and the building to shield them from the blaze.  Drive Zone's classes were temporarily moved to The Dance Refinery at 8335 S. Shelby St., just north of Greenwood.  All 22 students taking Sunday driving lessons at the business that opened in April found their way to the new location the day after the fire, Zachary said. Clients can reach him by phone at 884-0825 or online at www.drivezone.net.  Zachary said he hopes a vacant store at the strip mall's south end can become the future home of Drive Zone. He plans to contact the landlord, Fineberg and Associates in Carmel, to discuss relocation options today and hopes to move into the space as early as Tuesday.  "I love being out there," Zachary said. "It's a great location that's convenient for our clients."  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

  

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