A black archeological site of a pet store next to a bank that has not been touched by a fire.
The Bunny’s Bunny Memorial Museum is still in all of its business, separated from strip malls with red caution tape.
The long -standing bicycle shop, which has been reduced to the twisted metal mountain, is away from a handwritten Thai restaurant with handwritten notes on the door with tape. Come back soon! “
The top and bottom of Rake Avenue, a major commercial street of Altadena, is a strict sign of the aftermath of Eaton Fire, that is, the wrapped business and the exempted business. The flame, which is the catastrophic loss of the close community at the foot of the Sangabriel Mountains, has destroyed more than 9,400 houses and commercial structures by flames.
Estimated economic losses from the wildfire around Los Angeles last month have increased to more than $ 250 billion, one of the most expensive natural disasters in the United States. According to La County Economic Development Corp estimation, nearly 1,900 SMEs were in the fire extinguishing zone, probably influenced. These companies supported about 11,400 employment.
Now, regardless of whether their shop has survived the flame, the owner of a small business says they are facing the crisis. People who have lost their companies are walking around through insurance claims and loan applications while struggling to rebuild. Owners who have stores have smoke and ash damage, utility that has not yet been restored, and the fear that customers will not return for a long time.
“I don’t have a community anymore,” said Leo Bulgarini, whose gelatellia and restaurants, bearing their name, escaped the fire. On the other side of the parking lot, the next Bunny Museum was burning on the ground.
“Who wants to come here?” He said. “I keep listening,” Bulgarini is alive! ” “
This is three stories from the entrepreneurs of Altadena and the business they have built.
It burned out, but I didn’t go out
When he was 14, Steve Salinas got a job in Steve’s pet and a bicycle and paid $ 3.75 per hour to tinker around his bicycle. The combination shop was like something from a child’s dream country. It is a place where children can praise the shining Schwin and enter with pet turtles.
For many years, Salinas has refined the skills to bend the damaged bicycle frame to build a custom five -seater and a six -seater bicycle, but his favorite part is the connection he has built with his customers. did.
Steve Salinas visits the site of a burning bicycle store. He started working at the store when he was 14 years old.
(CARLIN STIEHL / for the time)
Pet shops and bicycle shops were eventually divided into two different businesses. One was on the other corner from the corner, and Salinas purchased the bicycle in the late 1990s.
The morning after the Eaton fire began, Salinas drove to check her mother’s house. It was safe. Then he went to a friend’s house and saw two doors wrapped in his house, so he climbed the hose on the hose until the water truck arrived.
The house made it, but he immediately knew that his bicycle store was not.
A few days later, Sarinas noticed that the scorched tire tube was inhaled, walking on the burnt abandoned INS with distrust, and even the items made of aluminum were destroyed. He estimated that it had lost about $ 250,000 for tools and products.
Currently, in his mid -50s, he has decided to reconstruct a store that has been part of his life for 40 years. Since the pandemic began, Sarinas estimated that his business had increased by about 30 %.
Salinas had general liability insurance, but he did not have a fire insurance -it would have more than three times more than three times as a premium cost per year.
He has one employee. This is a long -term bicycle mechanic that started GOFUNDME for business. Salinas said he would spend money to resume in a pop -up place until Steve’s bicycle store was rebuilt.
Recently, he has collected donated bicycles, coordinated them, and gave gifts to residents who lost their homes.
“We must continue,” he said. “Now it’s a problem to move your head forward and prepare for a way to restore it.”
There are four walls and customers
Three weeks after the Eaton Fire began, Ashima Gupta unlocked the glass door at Cordninzas, a learning center for children purchased for $ 80,000 in October.
The center was a cheerful place for children aged 5 to 14 years old to make Lego after school and weekends, practice coding skills, design and print 3D toys on site.
To support the growth of the franchise, 45 -year -old Gupta spent $ 10,000 on marketing and contacted local companies to sell partnerships. There were many new members signed up, and she had six part -time employees. By the end of the year, she said that the center was incorporating $ 15,000 a month from the center and was financially broken.
When the fire cleaned Altadena, Cordninja survived with Bulgarini and the other eight strip molonants. But Gupta said they were Inferno’s “quiet victims”: technically intact, but they were out of business effectively for foreseeable future.
Ashima Gutta, the owner of Code Ninjas, is in the learning center.
(CARLIN STIEHL / for the time)
“Who brings the children here? She said when she passed through the center on a recent Tuesday morning. The utility is still out, and the fine layers of ash are floors, orange benches. I coated the Food Ball Table.
The pink marker on the white board was written by the eerie reminder on the day when everything was stopped, “What was a spider’s new year resolution?”
She said that 95 % of customers had already canceled. Many people lost their homes and moved to an area far away from Cordninjas, so it was meaningless to keep paying memberships.
Guupta himself does not believe that the center of the center, that is, an untouched island in the vast scenery of the wreckage, is now suitable for young children. She admitted that she wouldn’t bring her 10 -year -old daughter here.
“I can’t get into my head what I should do,” she said.
Gaputa anticipated that it would take 2-3 years to recover. She and some other strip mall tenants are considering writing a letter to their landlords to seek rent reduction. The invoice received about $ 6,000 invoices on a monthly 2,500 -square -foot space.
Sean Shak Marian, right, the owner’s Greece cafe, and the bakery next to the bakery will visit Guupta in Code Ninjas three weeks after Eaton Fire. Both were waiting for the utility to be restored at the strip mall plaza that survived the flame.
(CARLIN STIEHL / for the time)
She also said that she was waiting for insurance backed up by claiming a more imminent residential real estate.
Since the fire, people have been asking her: “Is your house burning?” “Is your center burning?” “” Please wait. “”
50 years later, the pet shop calls it to stop it
Carry Meyers began running a Steve pet and bicycle registration book as a teenager in the 1980s.
Her uncle, Steve Segner, owned a store, and she began to thank the birds and loose cricket dissonance zoos. In 2000, Meyers purchased a business pet part and changed what he started as a vice gig into her life.
Under her ownership, Steve’s pet sold puppies, kittens, rabbits, bells, birds, fish, and even goats and small pigs. Meyers was greeted by a green parrot named Pest every morning. He became a mascot of the store and “Hello!”
When the Myers’ children were young, they took a nap in a crib at the store, jipping, cleaning up and taking stock. The grooming service has become a larger part of the business, as it sold organic chicken feeds and dog foods made in avocado.
Like the owners of many small and medium -sized businesses, she felt that it was becoming more and more difficult to compete with retailers such as targets and Amazon. However, she survived these tasks along with economic issues such as the 2008 financial crisis and recent Hollywood strikes.
“I am still here,” Meyers tells the customer who calls to check in. “I made it again. I’m lucky.”
Last month, when Eaton Fire torn Altadena and destroyed both her house and her pet shop.
“Nothing remains,” she said. “there is nothing.”
Meyers said with his dog Jojo that he would not be rebuilt Steve’s pet.
(CARLIN STIEHL / for the time)
When Meyers evacuated from her house on January 7 in the darkness of the night, the fire was still far from the store, so she knew that pushing animals into the car emphasized them.
The next morning, Steve’s pet was still standing and she drove to evacuate animals. On the way, she received a call saying that the store was wrapped in flames.
All animals, including beloved pests, are gone.
Meyers, who were upset and sad about the loss, had to worry about the livelihood of seven employees. She sent a group textbook to encourage them to get unemployed, and after receiving $ 25,000 from insurance, she issued her salary. Her daughter, Hannah, started GOFUNDME to help her employees.
Meyers has no plans to resume. She says she needs to concentrate on reconstruction of her house, and she is ready for a break at the age of 56.
Posts on the shop website that I am grateful to my previous customers uses past tension.
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