Coeur d’Alene business owners bounce back from downtown fire with community support
COEUR d’ALENE, Idaho — Six Coeur d’Alene businesses were destroyed in a fire back in January.
Since then, those business owners have received an outpouring of support from the community- and it hasn’t stopped.
The fire is still a sore wound for Denise Schmidt, owner of Schmidty’s Burgers.
“Driving by, it’s emotional,” said Schmidt. “It was devastating. It’s a shock you’d never expect to have to go through.”
Nearly six years of her life are now boarded up. She says nothing was salvageable.
“Our building is a total loss, everything’s gone” said Schmidt. “We were able to save our first dollar and a couple sentimental things from inside. Other than that, no equipment, no anything that might help.”
Schmidt says they’re still looking for a place to rebuild again, but it hasn’t been easy.
Meanwhile, several feet away from the boarded up building, 720 Haberdashery owner Luis Gomez is tidying up his store.
He reopened one month after the fire.
“Feels a lot better than when it was, when the fire- that was a devastating thing, that was an emotional rollercoaster ride,” said Gomez.
Gomez’s men’s clothing store suffered about $50,000 in damages. Some of his clothes were on the streets when it happened, but they’re now restored.
It’s all thanks to the community who held several fundraisers for the businesses, raising thousands of dollars in total.
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