Salon faces many obstacles on road to recovery

Feb. 25, 2007
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon@fredericknewspost.com

   FREDERICK — Lotion, lipstick, a driver's license and credit cards had melted into a clump at the bottom of Pam Knight's black leather Kathy Van Zeeland purse.
     But, in a corner of the backpack purse, Pam found three 20 dollar bills, money she would have used Monday afternoon to have lunch with her family.
     That $60 was all she and her husband, Danny Knight, believed they had to show for their business of almost 20 years. The money was all that was salvageable Tuesday from Pam's purse after a fire destroyed Soft Images hair salon the day before.
     “The money smelled so bad, it makes the whole room smell like smoke,” she said. “I rinsed them off, but it still stinks.”
     Pam used one of the bills to leave a tip at China Garden on Wednesday after the owner refused to accept payment for a meal.
     When workers at the restaurant smelled the smoke saturated money, the look of disgust on their faces amused her.
     Later, Pam sealed the other two bills in a plastic bag, a bitter keepsake of all she lost in the fire.
     Pam estimates the fire caused $100,000 in damage to the salon, but she expected her insurance policy would cover about $30,000.
     But that was before she found out the insurance policy was canceled. Her agent claims the couple missed a payment last year, voiding the policy they held for more than 19 years.
     The salon's 20th anniversary would have been in July, but the fire at Antietam Village Center destroyed it, along with about a dozen other businesses.
     “When I drove by today, I cried,” she said the day after the fire. “That whole chapter of my life is gone. I lost my whole identity.”
     The fire started at Jim's Liquors during a standoff between police and James C. Douglas, after he ordered the owner of store to leave at gunpoint. Firefighters couldn't stop the blaze from consuming the two-story center.
     “We didn't realize the shopping center was on fire when the police came in and told us to get out,” Pam said. “We ran as fast as we could and all we could think about was getting shot.”
     When Pam, six workers and a customer reached the other side of the parking lot, she was stunned to see the building in flames. The smoke was so thick, they couldn't see each other.
     For the Knights, the fire was just the start of a string of bad news that almost compelled Pam to quit for good.
     When the couple bought an insurance policy with Erie Insurance Group 19 years ago, they never imagined it wouldn't be there when they needed it most.
     “We were in our 20s when we got the insurance, so we didn't know what to get,” Pam said. “Every year an agent would call to review the policy and ask us if we wanted to change it, but we never did.”
     When Pam called Monday, the agent told her it would take more than 30 days to find out how the claim would be handled. And that process wouldn't start until police and fire departments closed their investigations.
     On Tuesday, the agent told the couple the policy had been canceled when they missed a payment in June. For years, the Knights made monthly payments January through June for a policy that covered the business for the whole year.
     Danny said the agent never told them they missed a payment and no longer had insurance.
     On Friday, he stood at the entrance of the fence surrounding the gutted shopping center. Insurance workers wearing hard hats and neckties surveyed the damage with their clients.
     He waited alone, answering a steady stream of calls on his mobile phone as he stared at the remains of his business.
     “Our adjuster will not be showing because they're not interested in helping us,” he said. “I think it's an incredible injustice, but that's just a small portion of what it will take to rebuild.”
     The couple is considering legal action, but is more concerned with finding a new place to work. Without the insurance money, they will have to start from scratch, using savings from the roughly $12,000 the business took in each week.
     “It doesn't make sense that they didn't call us or send a letter. When I forget to make a payment on my car insurance, they call to let me know it's going to be canceled,” Pam said. “The challenge is that all my records are burnt. We could be out of luck with nothing.”

Recovery begins
     Some owners were allowed inside the build ing Tuesday; others didn't return until Friday, after police and fire officials had concluded their investigations. Pam recovered a charred computer, but she isn't sure if information on the hard drive will be salvageable.
     During a staff meeting Wednesday, Pam drew strength from her employees and consoled them.
     They discussed plans to find a place to work and how to cope with the loss, but mostly they reflected on the salon.
     “You almost take for granted that little space, it was our home away from home,” Pam said. “It was made up of a lot of mom-and-pop stores and you had a connection with them all because we were all there for so many years — where are they all going to go?”
     Seeing workers from other shops in the center, catching up on the things they did over the weekend and watching out for each other are just some of the things they'll miss.
     The loss has taken a toll on Pam.
     When she placed an order for supplies Wednesday, she realized she didn't have so many of the pieces of equipment she's taken for granted over the years. Mixing bowls, brushes, combs and capes are all gone.
     “The stress and anxiety is very real, I just can't seem to function,” she said. “I was just in this fog and I couldn't think, just so scatterbrained all day.”
     After losing the business Monday and learning about the canceled insurance policy Tuesday, Pam began to consider giving up. She wondered how the business could survive and how to break the news to her workers.
     “I thought maybe I don't want to do this anymore,” Pam said. “Maybe this is a sign to be done with it.”
     At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Danny found nine pairs of shears in the rubble. The leather cases were ruined, but the scissors were in perfect condition.
That was enough to give Pam hope to rebuild. “That's when I knew something good is going to come out of this,” she said. “We're going to find a place in Frederick we would never have gotten if this hadn't happened.”

Back to work
It could take more than $100,000 and more than six months to outfit a new salon. But Soft Images workers can't wait that long. Pam and Danny need to find a place for their nine employees to set up within a week, or they'll be without health insurance and a paycheck. “I pay half of the health insurance, so if we could find a place by next week, it'll be OK,” Pam said. “Otherwise I won't be able to pay (for the insurance) without making money.” For now, the priority is getting her employees back to work as soon as possible. Even before the fire was out, several salons offered to let Soft Images workers set up at empty stations.
     Tami Anderson from Renaissance Salon & Spa on Buckeystown Pike connected with Soft Images through a mutual sales representative.
     They never met before.
     “We don't really think of it as competition because we're all in the same industry doing the same business,” Anderson said. “That's why we're all in this business, because we have a passion for people and we want to help people feel good about themselves.”
     Anderson answered calls from many of her workers who wanted to help as the fire raged Monday.
     The workers fill all of the 18 styling chairs at Renaissance, but Anderson offered Soft Images six coloring stations that could be used as temporary work areas.
     April Horn-Ausherman, owner of Hairworx Salon on Willowdale Drive, took a class with Danny more than 15 years ago, but she never forgot him. She still uses some of the techniques he showed her.
    Hairworx has enough room for four stylists. After being a volunteer firefighter for nine years, Horn-Ausherman knows how important it is for a community to stick together.
    “If something like this happened to me, I know of a few salons that would be there on my doorstep offering to help,” she said. “If we all just look out together, the whole world would be a better place.”
    Charles Riser, an owner of cosmetology school The Temple on West Church, also offered help.
    “They opened their salon about the same time my mom opened up hers 20 years ago,” he said. “These guys aren't competition to us, they're friends and family.” The school's supply closet will go a long way to replace items that were lost in the fire.
     Sharon Riser, who handles admissions at the school, made calls to industry leaders to collect donated supplies, have new business cards printed and book a motivational speaker.
     “You have to be back in business within a week; customers aren't going to wait,” she said. “One thing that's unique about our industry is that we give back and take care of our own.”
     For example, Hurricane Katrina destroyed about 85 percent of the beauty salons and cosmetology schools in Louisiana in 2005, Sharon said. The beauty industry raised more than $1.5 million to help salon and school owners there get back on their feet.
     “That's the kind of power our industry has,” Sharon said. “You make your money behind the chair but when you're behind your community, your community is behind you.”
     As the help trickles in, Pam continues to draw inspiration for her new beginning. She wants customers to know the business isn't folding — it'll come back better than ever.
     She hopes to be back in business Wednesday at Renaissance.
     “I'm going to pick up the pieces, be positive and look for a place we can totally fit out, add a spa and move forward,” she said. “It's all material stuff anyway. We all survived, and that's what's important.”