Joanne Sapp stared at the burned-out shell of her Mount Airy shop, still shocked by what little remained of her once-thriving business.
“It?s like a funeral for me,” she said Monday. “I?m very devastated. This was my life savings.”
For four years, she sold prom dresses, teenagers? clothes, watches and other accessories at Deja Vu in Mount Airy.
But the store burned in a Main Street fire early Sunday that caused $4 million in damage, destroying six businesses, damaging another and claiming five apartments.
The buildings had stood for more than 80 years.
“It?s so hard to let it go,” Sapp said. “It?s been here forever. It?s the centerpiece of our town.”
Structural engineers will decide Tuesday whether the Deja Vu building can stand or if it will be demolished.
The three-alarm blaze, which caused no injuries, ignited about 4 a.m. when heat from a brick oven spread to the wall in Lorienzo?s Brick Oven Cafe next to Deja Vu, the state fire marshal said. About 150 firefighters battled the fire most of the day.
Monday, business owners vowed to return.
Too many people rely on Dan Caiola?s Old Towne Restaurant to give up, he said. Smoke and water heavily damaged the building, but it did not burn.
“Buying a business only to have it taken from you within 24 hours ? it was tough,” said Caiola, 24.
He stood with some regular customers Monday, eager to reopen, while strangers offered help.
“When people you don?t even know come up to you and ask to help, that?s a good feeling,” Caiola said. “You don?t get that in a big city.”
Some businesses plan to open in trailers down the street until the town determines what to do with the gap in Main Street, said Rob Scranton, who owned a building that was razed Sunday.
The businesses were renovated about three years ago as part of a statewide effort to attract business to historic Main Streets.
“No one is picking up and moving on,” Caiola said. “Bigger and better, we?re going to come back.”
