Vendors wait to get access to what’s left of flea market

David Lore III loads the exotic birds and chinchillas into a car. Photo by Shelley Smith, Salisbury Post.

Gerald Burkhart lost $65,000 in instruments and sound equipment, and waits with shovel in hand to go through what's left of his shop. Photo by Shelley Smith, Salisbury Post.

Vendors Terry Childers and his daughter Brittany wait at the Webb Road Flea Market on Tuesday. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

One of the first vendors to gain access to the fire scene at the Webb Road Flea Market was the owners of the Pet Place. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Webb Road Flea Market owners Chris and Libby Stephens talk with caretaker Buddy Johnson at the scene of the Fridays fire. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

One of the exotic birds that survived the fire. Photo by Shelley Smith, Salisbury Post.

One of the chinchillas that survived the fire. Photo by Shelley Smith, Salisbury Post.

ATF, SBI, local officials explore the perimeter of the rubble last week. Photo by Shelley Smith, Salisbury Post.

Fire investigators talk to Bobby "Buddy" Johnson, the caretaker of the flea market, Friday afternoon. Photo by Shelley Smith, Salisbury Post.

By Shelley Smith

ssmith@salisburypost.com

Hundreds of vendors at the Webb Road Flea Market will never know exactly what caused the fire that destroyed their livelihoods Friday, but fire investigators have ruled out arson. The flea market is to open this Saturday and Sunday as an open-air market, and plans to rebuild are already in the works.

Vendors gathered at the south entrance to the flea market Tuesday afternoon, hanging around the chain-link fence, waiting to be let in and sift through what’s left of their businesses. Once allowed inside in small groups, hours after the time they were initially told they would be allowed inside, they had to sign an insurance waiver because of the unsafe conditions behind the gates.

David and Angela Lore, owners of The Pet Place, didn’t get their animals out until Tuesday afternoon, and feared some had not survived. The Lores were the first of the vendors to be allowed in to evaluate what property — if any — survived the fire.

Verna Roehm, owner of the 10-year-old leather shop — Verna’s Leather — said she lost around $60,000 worth of merchandise.

“It took a long time to build up,” Verna said. “And you build all these relationships with these people.”

Verna was laid off by Rhodes Furniture years ago and lost her retirement. The leather shop was a fresh start, and also took everything she had.

“This was my nest egg,” she said. “It’s just too hard. I thought I could stop crying, but I can’t. And so many of these folks were good people in there.”

Verna was one of three leather dealers in the Webb Road Flea Market, and also had a seamstress, Belinda Schulz. Schulz said that because Labor Day weekend was the biggest for sales, they stocked an extra $8,000 in leather goods into their booths last Monday before the fire hit.

Glenn and Betty Sue Lowder, of Lowder’s and Swanner’s Crafts, have been at Webb Road Flea Market since it opened.

“This is our income,” Betty Sue said.

“My main concern was what are we gonna do,” Glenn said when he found out about the fire. “We have not seen the TV. yet since it burned down — it’s devastating. We lost a lot, but there are people around us who lost more.”

Glenn said the other vendors were more than just neighbors — they were family.

“Whether you’re here a day, a week or a month, you’re family,” he said.

And Terry Childers, who is also a 25-year veteran business owner in the flea market, knows exactly how important the families are.

Childers, who owns Terry’s Tees, has used the Webb Road Flea Market as the main source of income for his family since the day the flea market opened. As he looked through the fence Tuesday at the ashes and rubble, he shook his head and said, “This really looks bad,” but added, “We’ll always be here.”

“Plenty of times I’ve wanted to give up, but plenty of times it’s been really good,” he said. “We’ve made a decent living, but it’s all the living we have. Everything that I ate, I drove, I lived — my whole life for the past 25 years came off of this property.”

Terry’s daughter, Brittany, who is now 20, spent the past nine years helping her father help their family.

When Brittany was in sixth grade, her mom had brain surgery. Brittany said her father went through a bad divorce, and her mother took everything. And, several years ago, her brother died.

“Besides having to start over, my brother dying in 2006 took a big toll on him,” Brittany said of her dad. “My dad’s been through a lot, and he needs my help.”

Brittany said her father and stepmother got married just before the flea market opened in 1985. And she started helping out when she was 11 years old.

“They started out with a little bit of stuff and a little bit of money,” she said. “This place made it possible to buy 10 acres of land, their house, and it made it possible for me to buy a car and help out more when I turned 16.”

Brittany said the main thing she loved about the flea market was the bonds vendors formed with others. She said vendors got together and gave her family $1,000 to help with her brother’s funeral, and also helped her with college tuition when she graduated from high school.

“Of all of the people I’ve encountered all my life, these people would be here for you,” she said. “A lot of people lost a lot in this. I have the memories, but it’s never going to be the same.”

Terry agrees with his daughter, and was hoping to find some closure by going through the rubble Tuesday.

“I want to go in there and just see if there’s anything,” Terry said. “I know there’s not ...

“When you lose something like that — 25 years of your life — it’s just like my son, he died. It’s the same feeling. It’s a point of your life.”

Terry said he and other vendors will be able to work together, pick up the pieces and move on.

“Everyone tries to help everybody,” he said. “It’s a lot of good memories. If they let us in here Saturday, we’re gonna be outside with something.

“And as soon as they build that back, we’re gonna be out here ... It’s just like a big family.”

Childers lost three screenprinting machines and thousands of T-shirts in the fire, but has some equipment at home, he said. And a T-shirt supplier already said he’d help him get back on his feet.

“We’re all gonna be back out here as soon as possible,” Brittany said.

They will be back out there as soon as Saturday, flea market caretaker Buddy Johnson said. The Webb Road Flea Market will be open from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, in the open-air booths.

Webb Road Flea Market owners Chris and Libby Stephens were at the market Tuesday, and although they would not talk to vendors, they released a statement to the media.

“We want everyone to know how saddened we are,” Libby said. “This is a significant loss for everyone.”

“Our heart goes out to the vendors who have been supportive of us for numerous years,” Chris said.

“Most of all, we’re very grateful that no one was hurt,” Libby said with tears in her eyes. “And we want to thank all of the fire departments.”

Chris said that along with the opening of the open-air market this weekend, a plan to rebuild is in place.

“We are trying to move as fast as possible to rebuild,” Chris said. “We’re pushing forward to do that as fast as possible.”

According to several vendors, the plan is to build a large metal building to house the indoor vendors, and will feature a sprinkler system.

Murphy said that because of today’s fire codes, any new structure will most likely have to have sprinklers.

“It wasn’t required, obviously, when they built that thing,” he said.

The damage to the 1,111 unit market, though, was so severe that fire investigators could not find a specific cause of the fire.

“All of us were down there looking, but there was nothing that would lead us to anything specific,” he said, noting the fire’s origin has been officially deemed “undetermined.”

“We don’t have any reason to suspect there’s anything suspicious about it,” Murphy said.

Murphy said the owners of the flea market had insurance, but the vendors did not.