By Donna Tam
The Eureka Times Standard
EUREKA, Calif. — Old Town business owner Arby Karnes has spent the last several days packing up the thousands of bead strands that line her store walls — walls that are now damaged by water and smoke from a recent Old Town fire — as she begins the process of storing her inventory.
A little over a week ago, Karnes watched as firemen had to break open the door of her family-run store, The Bead Shoppe, in their attempts to find the source of the New Year’s Eve fire.
“When they opened the door, smoke just poured out,” she said from inside the store, where the stench of smoke still lingers. It will have to close for two to four months while the property owner restores the space, she said.
The fire, at the old Greyhound Apartments on the 400 block of Third Street, burned in the wall between buildings and spread from the ground floor into the attic of the three-story apartment building. Fire crews cut into the roof to ventilate the building and had to tear open several concealed spaces to get at the more remote portions of the blaze.
While her business has been devastated, Karnes said she was grateful for the Eureka Fire Department’s quick efforts to make sure most of her merchandise was recovered.
“The fire department was fantastic ... . It’s severe, but it could have been much worse,” she said.
Eureka Fire Chief Eric Smith said the recent fire is a reminder that sprinkler systems are important to fire safety, especially in old structures — such as the ones in Old Town — which burn quickly.
“If we get a fire in our older, larger, historic buildings in the downtown area, the chances are that we’re going to have a difficult time controlling it,” he said, adding that older buildings aren’t built with fire resistant materials and often don’t have fire stops.
Sprinkler systems limit fires to small areas and also notify the fire department much like a smoke detector or an alarm system would, Smith said. While newer buildings are required to have sprinkler systems installed, older buildings are not required to retrofit.
Smith said a majority of the historic buildings in Old Town do not have sprinklers, but some — such as the Vance Hotel and the Sea Grill — do.
The historic Ritz Building is about to join those ranks. The Ritz, which is on the 200 block of F Street and was built in the 1870s, is getting ready to connect its system to the main system within the next 10 days.
Daniel Ollivier, owner of the building, said he wanted to protect his investment, the property as well as the people who use it.
“It’s a long process. It’s disturbing a lot of people ... but from a safety standpoint, it’s an absolute necessity. These buildings are very old — they’ll burn fast,” Ollivier said.
The retrofitting has taken a year and two men working 40 hours a week to complete.
Jerry Johnson, the pipefitter who also worked on Ollivier’s Gross Building in downtown Eureka, said the job is difficult because he and his partner have to crawl into the ceiling spaces in order to feed pipes through. The challenge is maintaining the building’s historical aesthetics as much as possible.
“Everything was on your back and belly,” he said, adding that the spaces can get as small as 14 to 18 inches in height.
Ollivier said he can understand why other businesses have not done it yet — in addition to a lengthy process, it comes at a high price.
Johnson said it costs twice as much to add a sprinkler system into an existing building than to build one into a new structure.
“The owner’s got to have lots of patience and deep pockets,” he said.
Smith encouraged the Eureka City Council last week to consider a form of incentive or assistance for business owners who want to retrofit their buildings to help maintain Old Town’s historical character, as well as help firefighters maintain public safety.
City Manager David Tyson said he hopes the city can consider some way to help business owners, possibly in the form of a low-interest loan program, similar to the city’s efforts to address seismic retrofits.
Smith said sprinklers are becoming more important to firefighting as less funding is available to employ firefighters.
“I would be negligent if I didn’t push the installation of sprinklers,” he said.
Karnes agreed that installing a system is costly and she doesn’t know if sprinklers will be a part of the property owner’s reconstruction plans. But, sprinklers or no sprinklers, Karnes said she’s committed to reopening The Bead Shoppe in the same building.
“I’ve branded myself to this location ... . I’m part of Old Town,” she said.
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