TOURISM : KK Tours Moved Mountains and Desks Following Irvine Fire

When a fire swept through a business center in Sky Park Circle in Irvine two weeks ago, KK Tours knew it had to relocate quickly to avoid having to bid sayonara to its thriving Japanese travel business.

KK Tours is the Japanese travel arm of giant Associated Travel in Santa Ana, and its telephone lines are its life lines. The fire left the office intact, but water and smoke damage made it unusable, said Associated President Tom Nulty.

“We were faced with disaster. There’s no way we could continue with business,” Nulty said.

The fire struck on a Friday night, allowing the Associated crew to try to work through the weekend to move the office to Associated’s headquarters.

But that meant enticing reluctant telephone company and airline reservations executives to move hookups and lines to the new offices. Even such a detail as finding a mover on such short notice proved a daunting task, Nulty said.

“The first response you get is it will take about 12 days,” Nulty said about the telephone company problem. “By being very tenacious, we were successful in getting the lines moved over here.” At one point, he said members of Associated’s board of directors were calling “friends at high places” in the telephone company to enlist their cooperation.

Nulty said a staff of 12, working through the weekend, succeeded in moving the operation. More than seven tons of desks and fixtures alone were moved to the Santa Ana office. “If we had relaxed for one second, we would have lost customers,” Nulty said.

When Monday came, KK Tours was open for business.