When clients stepped into Glenn Price’s law office, they got to know him immediately.
Awards and degrees plastered across the wall showed his and his partner Charles Farrington’s prestige.
But, unlike many law offices, Price Farrington adorned its with decorations collected through decades of exploration. An imposing wooden Cigar Store Indian served almost as a protector of the firm, and a 7-foot space needle towered over the room.
Now all that remains is charred wood, twisted metal, and a few filing cabinets.
Price Farrington’s office was one of 15 businesses hurt by one of the biggest fires in Bellevue’s recent history on Dec. 26. The fire destroyed the Forum West building, leaving the businesses with an uncertain future, while staring at a bad economy. It also demolished an area that, for nearly two decades, Price treated as a second home.
“You immediately begin thinking not only about the disruption of the business, but also about the last 16 years of accumulating personal memorabilia,” Price said Tuesday, as he combed through the roofless wreckage of his former office. “Mine was a different kind of office.”
Claims adjustors told him to only look for things that would affect the business’ ability to function. However, Price wanted to make sure belongings, such as his valued Meerschaum pipes, survived.
The blaze was first noticed at 5:31 a.m., Dec. 26, by a passing resident. Fire crews responded immediately, but all they could see was smoke. When crews found the flames they began to fight them, but after 10 or 15 minutes, part of the floor collapsed, said Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Troy Donlin.
Firefighters inside the building retreated to a “defensive” position, outside. But it was too late; the fire had engulfed the building.
The official cause of the blaze remains undetermined, Donlin said, but he guessed it began somewhere in the overhead area and spread quickly.
“There are no fire stops in the overhead of that building, and no monitored alarm system and no sprinklers, so it’s anyone’s guess how long that fire was burning,” Donlin said.
The building, built in 1979, sits off the corner of Bel-Red Road and 124th Avenue Northeast. The parking lot is riddled with crusted wood and melted plastic. Windows are blown out and half of the building’s roof is simply gone.
Donlin placed the damage on the building at approximately $1.5 million, a number he was told by some is “ridiculously low.”
Francesca Scott, property manager of the building for Sherron Associates, said no decision has been made as to the future of the building; the focus is on keeping the 15 businesses in the building informed, and helping them through the insurance process.
“You can’t help it when you have built such a big relationship with them; I don’t know if there is even a word that can describe this,” Scott said.
More than a week later, business owners are salvaging what they can out of their offices.
Dr. Steve Bucklew spent his Tuesday afternoon trying to save a few pieces of office furniture from his practice, Laser Nail, LLC, which treats skin conditions with laser therapies. The laser and much of his technical equipment suffered heavy water and ash damage.
Bucklew, like Price, lost many of his personal effects in the fire, but the first floor location of his office lessened the damage. Unlike Price, who only heard about the fire later, Bucklew saw firsthand the death of his favorite “hiding spot.”
Bucklew said the loss won’t break his back, as the laser center is one of his several business endeavors, but the impact is clear.
“It’s a loss of livelihood,” he said. “I don’t know how soon we’ll get going again.”
For others, the destruction of the business could cut off their only money-maker.
Teresa Chen is an acupuncturist who shares part of an office in the building with Dr. Bucklew. As she worked to remove soggy office furniture from the building she plotted her next move. Chen needs to find new office space for her practice as soon as possible. The loss of a few thousand dollars as a result of temporarily closing could be devastating.
“Of course there’s the loss of business, and I can’t get back to work,” she said. “Without this job, we have no income.”
The fire left many of the tenants scrambling to find temporary office space. Chen and Bucklew are on the hunt for a new location, while Price has been able to secure a spot just down the road, thanks to some friends. Despite the hardship, many of the companies were able to protect the records that will keep their businesses running once they find new space.
“There’s going to be some disruption and some temporary quarters, but we’re open for business,” Price said. “We don’t want to leave our clients hanging.”
A maintenance worker combs through the wreckage of the Dec. 26 Forum West fire. CHAD COLEMAN, Bellevue Reporter
Small businesses have tough time planning for disaster
Owning a small business is no small commitment. It takes time, money and effort. Protecting a small business from a disaster can be even tougher.
At large firms, specific staff members or departments are dedicated to making sure a fire such as the one that destroyed the Forum West building on Bel Red Road Dec. 26, won’t cripple the business. They have protocol, and often hire outside firms for extra help, said Bob Posey of the Business Continuity Center of Seattle.
Small businesses aren’t so lucky. Many of the firms at the Forum West building have only a few employees. They don’t have the time or the resources to set up an outside firm, or develop an extensive plan. Posey has a few recommendations for ensuring that a business can still function in the face of natural disaster.
• Back up your data. The most precious possession of many of those businesses, most of which are healthcare or legal firms, is client data. The loss of this would be detrimental to future operation. Posey recommends looking at Cloud computing and keeping separate discs of data at the home of one of the employees.
“There’s nothing we can do if people haven’t taken the steps to have their stuff backed up.”
• Make your office replicable. Data is important to have, but if it can’t be read it’s useless, Posey said. Posey recommends a concept called bare-metal backup, a system in which everything from a work computer, the data, programs and operating systems can be restored on another machine as long as it has a similar server.
• Practice makes perfect. Even the best plan can go awry when the pressure is on. Posey recommends running simulations so employees understand how to react when something goes wrong, and how to begin the process of recovery.
“A lot of technology is not very involved, it’s just a bunch of left and right turns, but the permutations off those turns are mind-boggling,” he said. “You can’t just try it for the first time in an emergency situation.”