Recent suspicious fires in Greater Sudbury are having an impact beyond the businesses directly affected; many adjacent businesses have become collateral damage.
Fire crews in Sudbury responded to a blaze at The Barber Shop on Lasalle Boulevard on Feb. 22 just before midnight. And earlier this week, a second barbershop location owned by the same person also caught fire.
Sudbury police say both fires are suspicious and believe they were targeted and are connected.
Several local stores within the Lasalle strip mall were impacted by the fire and had to close temporarily.
Karen Lagana has owned The FrameMaker for more than eight years. Lagana said even though the fire was weeks ago, she is still in shock and can’t believe it happened.
"Some days I wake up and I’m sad and some days I’m angry," she said.
"I am still in shock. When we got the phone call, we came here at night and I just saw the fire and the firemen and I couldn’t believe it. I was numb, I didn’t sleep all night … Everything that we’ve done for all these years is just gone.”
Lagana said because she had to close her doors temporarily, she had to lay off her employee, which wasn’t easy.
"That was really sad because I’ve had to lay her off a few times (because) of COVID," she said.
"We were just on a roll, customers were coming back, and it was just so nice to see people and it’s just devastating. When it happened, all I thought about was my customers' artwork and that was the first thing I had to get out of here."
Lavish Nails & Beauty Bar is a family-owned business in the strip mall that was also affected. Store manager Jennifer Pham said she couldn’t believe the news after hearing from her parents there was a fire just next door.
"I woke up that morning and I saw text messages from my dad that there had been a fire and I was in shock," Pham said.
"He had told me the store was safe but I didn’t think there would be smoke damages after the fact and that we’d be dealing with the repercussions of that and not being able to be open.”
Pham said although they are trying to stay positive, it’s difficult especially now that places are starting to open again and restrictions are being lifted.
"A beauty salon operates when there’s people travelling, and there’s weddings and proms, graduations and major events like that going on so we were really hopeful that business would pick up again," she said.
"Now that we’re having to be closed, we’re afraid of losing our clientele."
Both locations, as well as the other businesses in the mall, will be closed until further notice.
