Larry Sirkel shakes his head as he somberly walks past piles of brightly colored but charred clothes that children will never wear.
"It all happened in five minutes. In five minutes my whole store was destroyed," said the teary-eyed shop owner.Fire broke out in the stock room of Best Price Kids Store, 1150 W. Center St., just before 9 a.m. Tuesday. Orem firefighters sprayed water on the flames to keep them from spreading to two other tenants in the building. But thick smoke billowed into adjoining Quantum Leap and Les Olson Co.
Investigators estimate damage to the three businesses at $500,000. They believe faulty electrical wiring caused the blaze.
"The whole building was full of smoke," said Larry Lires, Quantum Leap vice president. The firm installs telecommunications hardware. Lires wasn't sure to what extent his inventory was damaged.
Les Olson Co. area service manager Don Kimball had no doubt that the smoke ruined copiers, fax machines and other office equipment on sale or in for repairs at the shop.
"It's pretty significant damage," he said, figuring losses at $150,000.
Sirkel was preparing to take a load of clothes to an open-air market in St. George when the fire started just inside a large garage at the back of his store. A side door he was using closed, locking him out. Hearing the fire inside, Sirkel ran around to the storefront, broke a window and crawled inside. He used a hand-held fire extinguisher on the flames to no avail.
"I put it out twice, but it kept coming up," Sirkel said.
Employees from the two neighboring businesses armed with fire extinguishers also were unable to keep the flames down. They backed off and waited for firefighters to arrive.
The fire couldn't have come at a worse time for Sirkel, who has owned the store for 2 1/2 years. He was thinking about opening a shop in St. George. The clothes he intended to sell during his busy August-to-December sales season lay in soggy, blackened heaps. Racks of pants and shirts are tainted with smoke.
Sirkel said he has insurance, but not enough to cover all of his losses. He's not sure what's next. There was some talk of holding a fire sale with clothing that could be salvaged.
"This might be the end of me," Sirkel said. "I don't know."