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Mark W. Fletcher (Bronbo)
Member
Username: Bronbo
Post Number: 973
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 7:54 pm: | |
All,
The Robert Brest Boot Shop burned down today in San Angelo. I hate to hear that, and I wish them well in whatever they do. Lets all wish them well and hope that they can recover soon.
Mark
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/dec/28/breaki ng-news-downtown-building-on-fire/
Downtown building destroyed in fire
By Jennifer Rios
Originally published 02:16 p.m., December 28, 2008
Updated 05:46 p.m., December 28, 2008
Photo by Brian Connelly
San Angelo firefighters battle a two-alarm fire at the Rusty Franklin Custom Boots building on Avenue B and Chadbourne Street in downtown.
Robert Brest, owner of Rusty Franklin Custom Boots for five years, was at home making lunch when he learned the downtown building was on fire. From outside his home on Harrison, he could see the smoke.
The store, a 10,000 square foot shop that produced boots, chaps, saddles and "just everything that a cowboy needs and works with," Brest said.
Sunday afternoon San Angelo firefighters worked for more than four hours to extinguish a fire that torched the building at Avenue B and Chadbourne Street.
"I don't know what I'm going to do now," Brest said. "I'm sure we're going to do something, I just don't know what."
Battalion Chief Clay Hubbard said no one was there at the time of the fire. No one has been injured in the fire.
Firefighters arrived on the scene around noon today, where they found smoke coming from the second story window and front door of the building, he said.
Hubbard said he thought the blaze started around the stairwell on the second floor. When they arrived, it was not engulfed in flames, but the staircase was too spongy to walk on. Brest said the staircase is the only way to reach the second floor.
Over the next few hours firefighters attacked the building, especially the second floor windows, from outside, Hubbard said. At one point firefighters entered the room, but had to retreat as wood and debris began to fall from the ceiling. By 3 p.m., the roof had caved in and firefighters worked to extinguish fire trapped underneath.
Five engines and about 28 firefighters responded to the fire, Hubbard said.
Fire Investigator Thomas Truett said he did not have enough information to conclude whether the fire was accidental or suspicious.
"We've collected information from witnesses about the case," Truett said, "but the exact cause is still under investigation."
He said he would investigate the fire Monday morning.
"It may not be cool enough to do much looking until tomorrow," he said.
Brest said the next step for him is to speak with his insurance agent and see what can be done.
Items from boot competitions, paintings and photos given to him from "rodeo guys" are gone, Brest said, along with "lots of saddles." Boot and saddle making equipment, along with business ledgers were also lost.
"I just fell in love with the boot and the saddle deal, and that's what I wanted to do," he said. "I wanted to be the best at it."
Brest said when the shop made boots for Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem for "No Country for Old Men," business picked up. He was thinking of hiring more employees to keep up with the demand for custom boots - orders were backed up a year from when someone ordered a pair.
He said his customers, who paid half down when they ordered boots, will have to call him since he has no way of reaching them.
"I've got to help my customers too," he said. "Everything we do is in that building, and it burned."
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Emmett Dwyer (Emmett)
New member
Username: Emmett
Post Number: 89
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 - 5:10 am: | |
A real loss to the Brest family and employees, and a real loss to San Angelo. Hopefully their insurance will enable them to get up and running again soon. |
Mark W. Fletcher (Bronbo)
Member
Username: Bronbo
Post Number: 978
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 09, 2009 - 9:58 am: | |
All,
One thing that I recommend everyone to do is consider what you would do if this ever happened to your shop. You may have insurance for the equipment, etc, but what would you do if your invoices, computer files, correspondence, measurements, bills……all your paperwork/records were burned up?
Any ideas, suggestions?
Mark
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Jim Bultsma (Bultsma)
New member
Username: Bultsma
Post Number: 38
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 09, 2009 - 12:00 pm: | |
Good question Mark. A few years back we had a dry summer and on July 7th we had a lighting strike on some Forest Service land south of town. Well, to make a long story short….33 homes and 10,000 acres later everyone was suddenly more aware of how important it is to have some records to show the insurance company.
The best way, according to the insurance agent, is to compile a complete list of tools, equipment, machinery, and stock on a spreadsheet like Excel. Then video tape the shop, opening drawers and closets while taping. Some insurance companies will put this information on file for you. Mine will take the list, as long as it is in Excel format, and they will upload it and the video to their server and keep the information for me. In any event, it would be wise to keep the list and video offsite somewhere.
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Mark W. Fletcher (Bronbo)
Member
Username: Bronbo
Post Number: 984
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 18, 2009 - 11:16 pm: | |
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/jan/05/city-o fficials-apply-for-grant-to-help-restore/
City officials apply for grant to help restore building
By Paul A. Anthony (Contact)
Monday, January 5, 2009
City officials raced last week to help save one of the city's oldest buildings after the old R.E. Donaho Saddle Shop - now Brest Boots & Saddle Shop - was all but destroyed by fire.
The two-story brick building at 522 S. Chadbourne St., which the city believes was built in 1909, was gutted Dec. 28 and is in danger of collapse because the roof and most of the second floor have crumbled, leaving little support for the nearly 100-year-old brick walls.
"We just want to help Mr. Brest stabilize the exterior of the building," said Development Services Director Shawn Lewis, "so if and when the interior can be constructed, the exterior can be restored in its historical configuration."
The city has applied for a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that would fund an engineering study to determine the best way to stabilize the outer walls of a building that has long been a staple of the city's boots-and-saddle industry.
Donaho began his business in 1890 and began selling boots in 1923. The building has undergone several name changes over the decades - the San Angelo Leather Co. from the 1950s to the 1990s, Rusty Franklin Boot Co. until 2004, when Franklin sold the shop to Robert Brest.
The building's then-owners applied in 1995 for an historic overlay district for the building, which was approved by the City Council. The district marks the structure as a local historic site and provides a 10 percent tax break.
It also prevents the owners from making any changes to the building's exterior without approval from the city's Historic Preservation Commission.
The fire marks the second blaze in recent years to strike a significant downtown-area historic structure. In 1999, a fire devastated the century-old Three Sisters buildings in the heart of downtown. Renovation of those buildings took most of the subsequent seven years.
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