Listen to this articleA fire on Oct. 25 allegedly started during construction in a vacant space at the former site of Café Joelle in Sayville and quickly spread to nearby buildings, affecting Paper Doll Vintage Boutique, Crushed Olive, Boris Barber Shop, Sayville Running Company, Counseling Office of Adrian Fields & Associates and Hammer & Stain.
Right after the fire, the Greater Sayville Chamber of Commerce sprang into action, temporarily relocating the impacted businesses, advertising, procuring signage and creating the Main Street Fire Relief Fund, which has raised $108,000 to date.
“Right now, our main priority is just to keep them going so they can come back home to Main Street,” said Eileen Tyznar, president emeritus of the Sayville chamber. “They are pivotal and an integral part of our Main Street.”
Small businesses are essential to downtown communities, notes Eric Alexander, founder of Long Island Main Street Alliance.
“They’re critical to bringing uniqueness and character to every Main Street on Long Island, ” Alexander said. “They keep the dollars in the community and especially with tragedies like this fire, it’s so important that people keep supporting them.”
A few doors down from where the fire originated is Hammer & Stain, a crafting project workshop and retail shop, which has been in business six years. The store experienced significant water damage to the front end when firefighters doused the buildings to extinguish the flames, notes owner Sandra Bernius. In addition to water damage, there was extensive smoke and soot damage throughout the whole studio, which Bernius closed for about a month.
“We lost everything in the front half our store,” Bernius said. “The front half of our store is our retail section and what we call our casual craft area, which is for walk-ins, all of that is damaged. And that part of the store is closed for the indefinite future.”
Pivoting at a moment’s notice
Hammer & Stain is able once again to host workshops in the back of the shop, for which they were able to build temporary walls and isolate their electrical system.
“We had to get through a checklist of things to be able to open up the back end of the studio to operate just our workshops,” said Bernius.
She recommends making sure you have good insurance that covers damages, and also, in the event of a disaster, staying flexible.
“That happened on Friday. By Sunday we were back up and running workshops at another location,” Bernius said. “We set up a temporary shop with friends. It’s really just being able to pivot and to just keep going.”
Despite the recent damages sustained at its Sayville shop, Hammer & Stain is still on track to expand with a second location in the new Station Yards development in Ronkonkoma.
With its goal of supporting local businesses, Station Yards was thrilled when Hammer and Stain chose to join our community, said Meaghan Coughlan Treat, development manager for the mixed-used development.
“Shortly after signing their lease, they faced the challenge of a fire at their Sayville location,” Coughlan Treat said. “Despite this setback, Sandra’s resilience and determination have been inspiring. She has not only continued with her expansion plans at Station Yards but also actively participated in our events, building a strong presence in Ronkonkoma. We are honored to support such an exceptional small business owner and can’t wait to see Hammer and Stain thrive at Station Yards.”
Take precautions and act quickly
As aforementioned, the businesses afflicted by the Sayville fire experienced damages such from water, smoke and heat. In order to lessen these effects as much as possible, Rory Bulovas, owner of Bulovas Restorations, a property damage resolution company in Ronkonkoma recommends immediate mitigation—especially due to any type of water or moisture.
“You want to start drying out the structure as soon as possible so you don’t have secondary damages, such as mold growth,” Bulovas said.
He adds that store owners should also ensure they have a good alarm system that notifies the fire department immediately.
“It doesn’t help if you have a smoke alarm that only activates a sound and no one’s there to hear it, it’s no good to the fire department,” Bulovas said. “Obviously, the response time is everything when it comes to putting out the fire as quickly as possible.”
Businesses should also have a sprinkler system in their buildings and have easy access to their fire extinguishers, he continues.
“God forbid you have a small fire that’s happening, and you’re panicking, and you don’t even remember where the fire extinguisher is, you could basically save your entire business if you did know where your fire extinguisher was in an emergency,” he said.
Bulovas also notes to take precautions regarding any potential fire hazards, such as as lithium ion batteries, which should be kept in fire-resistant bags. This also includes GFI protected outlets and not overloading electrical strips. As the temperature drops, some business owners might also be tempted to utilize space heaters, which can turn disastrous if they are plugged into the same electrical strip or outlet as computer systems or other electronics.
“I would recommend having an electrician check your circuit breaker panel to make sure that all the breakers are not old and you have no faulty breakers,” he said.
Above all, Bulovas stresses having the right insurance policy and enough coverage for your business, including one that covers business interruption and subsequent loss of income.
“A lot of people want a cheaper insurance policy to save $2,000 a year,” Bulovas said. “But you can have an extra $2,000 in coverage that can technically help you out significantly in the time you did have a fire.”