Fire leaves gap at shopping strip

Hot Springs complex cleaning up but blaze’s cause unknown Complex owner Harold Burroughs said the last of 20 dumpster loads of charred remains was hauled off Wednesday.

HOT SPRINGS — The cause of the January fire that consumed four storefronts in the 70 West Plaza shopping center on Airport Road remains unknown, the shopping center’s owner said.

Harold Burroughs, who, along with his wife, Kathy, has owned the complex since the first building was constructed in the early 1970s, said the insurance company couldn’t offer a cause for the blaze that 56 firefighters from eight departments battled into the early hours of Jan. 7.

He said he’s yet to receive a settlement from the insurance company and doesn’t know if the affected area will be rebuilt.

Autumn Carlisle, chief of the 70 West Fire Department, said in January that the back of the middle building in the complex was the likely origin of the fire, which she said probably started in Lake Hamilton Cleaners or Stoddard’s Pet Shop.

She said the area affected by the fire was built before the fire code mandated sprinklers in buildings, explaining that older structures in the 70 West Department’s service area aren’t required to meet code standards unless they are renovated or expanded.

Lakey Insurance and Star Nails are the only businesses in the affected section that the fire didn’t displace or close. In addition to the pet shop and dry cleaner, which was a drop-off and pickup point for clothes cleaned at Pure White Cleaners in the 2000 block of Central Avenue, the fire closed Lake Hamilton Hair Center and Puppy Love Pet Grooming Salon. Discount Boots, between the hair center and the dry cleaner, went out of business in May and had been converted into the shopping center office.

Burroughs said the last of 20 dumpster loads of charred remains was hauled off Wednesday, leaving a gap where four storefronts once stood between the children’s clothing store Bear Essentials and Hutchison Tax Service. Burroughs said the clothing store’s eastern wall is being rebuilt, which will allow the building’s roof to be repaired.

The tax office is in the newest part of the complex. Built in 2004, its fire wall checked the flames’ advance and spared Hutchison’s and B&A Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. from the worst of the fire. Both businesses had smoke and water damage, but have since reopened.

A walkway between Star Nails and the Farmers Insurance Agency separates the fire-affected area from the wing built a year after the complex’s original building. All three businesses in the far west section remained open after the fire.

Arego’s Guns relocated to 532 Airport Road after 18 years in the 70 West Plaza. Store manager Roger Latsha said the smell of residual smoke made it impractical to continue at the location between Bear Essentials and Lakey Insurance. After a postfire liquidation sale, Arego’s was closed for most of February and reopened March 3 at its new location. According to property records, the business purchased it in late January.

“We didn’t think we’d ever be able to get rid of the smoke smell, so we thought it would be quicker and easier to move than clean and rebuild,” Latsha said.

Latsha said ground was broken Wednesday on the expansion of the new location, which previously housed USA Karate. A grand opening is scheduled after the buildout is completed.