Three weeks after devastating fire, Statesville business owners working to reopen

STATESVILLE, N.C. (WBTV) - Tuesday marks three weeks since a devastating fire tore through several buildings in the heart of downtown Statesville. While everyone is thankful that no one was hurt in the fire or the effort to put it out, livelihoods of some who worked downtown have been affected, and that part of the fire is still burning for some.

Today GG’s gift shop owner Gloria Hager has her office set up outside the Vanilla Bean coffee shop.

“I’m just paying bills, getting computers set up and stealing the neighbor’s table to work on, it’s my desk for today,” Hager said. “Even when you’re burned out the bills still come.”

Next door at 125 W. Broad St., workers are preparing the space for Gloria to open up the shop as soon as she can.

“By the end of the week we should be able to start planning. I’m just ready to start planning. It’s going to take a few months…we’re excited, and sad, and happy,” Hager said.

“I didn’t know what to think, I was scared, yeah,” said Yong Kim.

Around the corner at Beautiful You, owner Yong Kim is grateful the store wasn’t damaged, but she says many customers have stayed away either thinking she was closed, or due to the lack of parking.’

“I was open but people thought that I was included in the fire, so they were not coming,” Kim added.

“With the street closure we’ve lost a little bit of parking so that’s been a little bit hectic. This is the new normal for a little bit I guess,” said Liz Petree of the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation.

Petree with says despite the inconveniences of the new normal, they are working hard to fix what was lost.

“The plans are that we’re rebuilding everything, and they’ll be able to come back home at some point, but we’re just trying to find spaces,” Petree added.

Petree said that a financial planner who lost office in the fire has been working remotely, while trying to find a new space downtown. And the Theatre Statesville has benefited from generous dontations from the community, and particularly from local theater groups across the region.

Friends also set up this page for anyone wishing to help.

And Gloria Hager says it’s hard to be too sad when she keeps having nice things to happen, like the note she received from a men’s Sunday School class at Statesville’s First Presbyterian Church.

“It just said we prayed for you today and it was signed by all the men in the class, and it was the most moving things, and everything is very moving,” Hager said.

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