CHINATOWN : Shop Owners Seek Answers After Fire

Phong Chung used to arrive at his store by 10 in the morning, making sure his karaoke display was in order, his CDs and laserdiscs were straight and that he was prepared for customers.

But after a Jan. 12 fire tore through the Chinatown Plaza on North Broadway, ravaging his business and his dreams in a few hours, he and about 15 distraught merchants have been reduced to standing in front of the boarded-up, two-story mini-mall, waiting for answers.

How will they recover from the loss without insurance? When can they get back into their shops to recover any salvageable merchandise? Will the owner rebuild? How did the fire start?

“I worked hard for 15 years to open this store--now I have nothing,” said Chung, who opened New Sound Karaoke a year and half ago.

The Fire Department is investigating, but has not yet determined the cause of the blaze. The fire may have started in one of the shopping center’s restaurants, investigators said.

More than 100 firefighters spent nearly three hours putting out the early morning blaze that caused about $600,000 in damage to the building and $900,000 in losses to the contents. About one-third of the stores were damaged by the fire, the remainder by smoke and water, fire officials said. No one was seriously injured.

Chung, like many of the merchants who ran more than 30 small shops in the plaza, did not have insurance for his lost inventory.

“I don’t know what I am going to do,” said Shrilui Tsai, the owner of Kuo Hwa Jewelry for the last 11 years. The shop was ankle-deep in water and filled with charred debris when she inspected it just after the fire.

She was depending upon the brisk sales that normally accompany Chinese New Year, which will fall on Jan. 31, to get her through the rest of the year.

Wilson Tang, president of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, said that many small Chinatown businesses depend upon Chinese New Year sales for a chunk of their yearly income. Without that revenue, he doubted that some could avoid bankruptcy.

Tang recommended that the shopkeepers, many of whom could not afford insurance, seek assistance from the Small Business Administration or an emergency loan from a private lender.

Patrick Lee, one of the mini-mall’s owners, said he is waiting for the Fire Department to complete its investigation before starting cleanup and reconstruction. Merchants were allowed to rummage through the remains of their shops for valuables.

Lee does not know when the mall will conduct regular business again, but he hopes that the handful of shops that were not severely damaged will be able to open while the remainder of the mall is refurbished.

“As the owners, we want things done as soon as possible so we can start collecting rent again,” said Lee.