Newark business Arcade Framing Gallery rebuilding following fire and flood in 150 year-old listed building
A business in Newark's historic Victorian Arcade say they aren't sure what the future holds after a fire and flood forced them to close.
Arcade Framing Gallery, just off of the Newark Royal Market place, had been trading for six years.
A fire broke out Tuesday, August 16 on the roof of the Arcade building directly above the framers, leading to a response from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue.
The cause was determined to be an old and faulty air conditioning unit with uninsulated, braided copper wiring which overheated and sparked a fire.
The blaze left the roof cracked and burnt away the lead flashing and wooden beams that the faulty air conditioning unit was sat upon.
Barry Pearson, business manager for the Arcade Framing Gallery, said: "We had the fire at roughly 1pm and fire crews were wrapped up within the hour.
"But then, you can only laugh, we had a huge rain downpour after weeks of dry weather and guess where all that water went?
"All the rain ran off the flat roof and into the shop through the holes left by the fire, so we had water pouring in and the ceiling tiles were collapsing.
"We had to run to Wilko to buy tarps and to set up buckets everywhere to try and catch the water."
The flooding was compounded by the weight of the water, overwhelming the drainage channels of the 150 year-old listed building.
The guttering, which is open to the elements, is easily blocked by debris and caused a backup of water, which then overflowed and ran in through the shop window.
Barry is concerned about knock on effect of the damage on the future of the business, saying: "So we had the water coming in through the roof, then running all down the shop front and into our window displays.
"The water damaged our main equipment, a £5,000 to £7,000 machine second hand, and now can't be used to cut frames.
"We're fortunate that all of our finished customer work was out of the way in an unaffected part of the building but we've had to cease all trading because we can't make any more orders.
"We can't even begin to think about sorting out the inside until the roof is replaced which could be October at the earliest and in the mean time we're losing money."
Barry believes the completed work that was saved is worth a few thousand pounds but based on earnings from August to Christmas 2021, they could lose out on at least £37,000 of business.
"We had a resident artist display his work here, a 5 digit income for us, who has now taken his art away to sell elsewhere because he can't risk this happening again.
"Combine that with the fact we can't take any more orders and we have no idea when, if ever we will be able to reopen."
