Scars and Stories Tattoo owner reacts to damage caused by devastating Wabash Avenue Fire

Scars and Stories Tattoo owner reacts to damage caused by devastating Wabash Avenue Fire

Safe.

Good evening and thanks for joining us.

I'm patrece dayton.

We continue our coverage of a fire that happened around 6 friday evening.

It was near 18th street on wabash avenue.

The fire started at the business "absolute home care".

But it affected businesses that were connected to the building.

News 10's dominic miranda spoke with one of those business owners.

He joins us now live in our newsroom with his reaction.... and how he's moving forward patrece..

One of the businesses that saw significant damage due to this fire was scars and stories tattoo shop.

It's at 17-15 wabash avenue.

I got a chance to speak with owner branden martin.... he told me he feels sick to his stomach.... and took me through what's next.

[take pkg outcue: bite.."one hurdle for 2020" duration:1:31] pk} around 6 on friday evening.... a man came running across the street to scars and stories tattoo..

He alerted the staff that the building next to them was on fire..

The owner...branden martin....and his staff quickly grabbed what they could and got out.

Within hours... the tattoo parlor's ceiling collapsed...and water and smoke damage took out everything.

"it's like we lost our second home.

Those guys there... we are all family.

We all run the shop together.

We all do a group effort and just to have it be gone.....it's pretty hard."

Now... martin is trying to pick up the pieces.

Luckily... everything was covered by insurance.

He says he's never been through something like this before and didn't know where to start.

But one thing that shocked him was how supportive the terre haute community has been in the aftermath.

"we never knew how much of a difference we've made until we see everybody's comments, posts, and phone calls and text messages.

That right there is the best feeling in the world.

It lets us know that we've made a difference and that people truly care about us so that helps a lot."

Martin says he hasn't slept much since the fire.... and they are in the process of looking for a new location to temporarily use while all of this gets sorted out...so they can get back up and running again.

"we're not done.

We're coming back stronger than ever.

Covid didn't stop us and well... neither is a fire.

It's just one hurdle for 2020."

Terre haute fire chief jeff fisher told me today... the fire is still under investigation.

Members from the indiana fire marshall's office were on scene today trying to find a cause.

Reporting live in the newsroom i'm dominic miranda news10