Stamford Antiques Center Owners & Dealers Ponder Next Step After Devastating Blaze

STAMFORD, CONN.

:A devastating fire snuffed out an antiques center and perhaps several livelihoods on Monday, April 3. Helping to spread the blaze that ravaged Building 15 in the 100-year-old, 20-acre Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co. multi-building complex on 735 Canal Street, according to an April 9 news report in the Stamford Advocate, was a broken sprinkler system that had been left unrepaired for years.

Citing an investigation by the city, the article stated that, according to Barry Callahan, chief fire marshal, a working sprinkler system would have been able to arrest the blaze before it spread to the rest of the building and engulfed it. Indeed, sprinklers were working in the rest of the Yale & Town complex, and Callahan was quoted as saying that the fire would have likely done less damage had it started anywhere else.

Even as fire officials were combing through the ashes and property maintenance records to determine the cause of the unprecedented six-alarm fire that destroyed eight businesses in the complex, many of the more than 100 antiques dealers who had showrooms in the Stamford Antiques Center, Building 15, their merchandise destroyed beyond salvage, were taking personal inventory and contemplating their next move.

"It's a total loss," said Dave Johnson, who with co-owner Drew Clark acquired the business, formerly known as Debbie's Antique Centers, in July 2005. "Any salvage is impossible." Estimating the total loss as between $5 and $10 million, Johnson described the range of destroyed antiquities as "everything from jewelry to a $165,000 chandelier. One jewelry case alone had about $40,000 worth of merchandise in it. There were Hudson River and Pennsylvania school paintings that were lost."

The tragedy of seeing irreplaceable treasures go up in flames was compounded, he added, by the fact that although each dealer was supposed to carry insurance, "most did not. We're pursuing different avenues of providing assistance, including through the state of Connecticut."

New York City dealer Lynn Davis, one of the affected dealers, said he was still going over his computerized list of merchandise to estimate what he had lost, but figured he had about $18,000 of insurance, which would not begin to cover an expected loss of approximately $100,000 worth of antiques from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. His eclectic grouping included modern pieces from the first half of the Twentieth Century as well as mahogany furniture. Among his losses were a mid-Nineteenth Century American Philadelphia console table, Italian walnut rail back chairs, a George III corner cabinet and George III dresser. Paintings, such as a Nineteenth Century portrait of a woman by E.O. Paine, and antique rugs were also destroyed.

Davis was unsure of where he would go next. "I expect Dave will try to give everyone a chance to get additional space [across the parking lot]," he said.

Johnson said he had space for perhaps about 20 dealers, which he would create by discontinuing the auctions that utilize the back third of the building. That solution brings its own sting, however, because the auctions had been experiencing significant sales growth. Since he and Clark had taken over the business, "sales were up 80 percent versus a year ago. We were heading in the right direction and attracting first-class inventory," he said.

"Reality has not set in yet," said Jim Sinnott, a dealer from Westchester County who under the aegis of Fox Hunt Antiques has dealt in Staffordshire pottery and decorative furniture for the past six years at the center. "I need to go up there and look for myself. I imagine that the stuff is still there, that I can walk into my space and see it." Sinnott said he began reviewing his handwritten inventory records, "but it gets a little crazy." He gauges about $35,000 in losses, none of it insured.

He said there were some extremely rare items, such as a complete assembled set of Staffordshire spaniels 1-6, so-called because the black and white dogs were made in six different sizes. He said that many dealers do not have insurance because it is hard to find an insurance company that will write a policy for merchandise that is always changing. "Thank God, no one was hurt," said Sinnott, who added that he has additional space in the building across the parking lot and more merchandise in storage.

The fire began shortly after noon on Monday, possibly in a piano restoration shop. Johnson recalled that six ladder trucks arrived on the scene, but when a cache of chemicals apparently ignited, it fueled the blaze, sent clouds of black smoke billowing into the air and drove the firefighters back. "It basically sucked Stamford dry of water," said Johnson, and shortly firefighters regrouped, drawing water from Long Island Sound, but the inferno raged on, sending plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.

Other nearby antiques businesses were unscathed.

Hampton Antiques Center owner Jacqueline Graber said, "We're fine. It's unbelievable that this could happen, and our hearts go out to all of the dealers who were affected." She was preparing to stage an event at her gallery over the weekend for a local animal charity. Asked if her gallery might be able to absorb some of the displaced business owners from the Stamford Antiques Center, she replied, "I had 70 people on the waiting list before this happened, so no."

"My next step, since this is my business and not a hobby, is to hit the road again, driving my usual 4,000 miles a month," said Westchester dealer Tanya Yakoub, whose total inventory of the antique mahogany furniture she specializes in is now down to eight to ten pieces. The widowed mother of four lost about $35,000 worth of merchandise, again with no insurance to cover her losses, but was optimistic since she had been able to secure additional space from Johnson and Clark across the parking lot.

"This is a good business," said Yakoub, "and I'm totally committed to it."

Similarly, as Johnson and Clark tried to sort out how to help their dealers and ponder their own future, Johnson indicated that they will regroup and survive this setback. "I've always believed that if you do what you love, the money comes next," he said.