Some business owners would look at the destruction of a fire ripping through their store and be ready to throw in the towel, but not Brandon Lewis.
Three days after flames erupted in his building, the owner of The Firing Pin on Buffalo Road in Bergen is already looking forward. He's going to rebuild.
When a reporter quipped, "you can build back better," Brandon said, "absolutely."
He was pretty young when he opened The Firing Pin in 2013, and though he had worked in the industry, this was the first firing range and gun shop he owned. Now he's got some experience as he contemplates a fresh start.
"Not that I have all the answers, but I've got at least 10 years' worth of more answers," Lewis said.
The fire was spotted just before 5 p.m. on Friday. A customer noticed some smoke coming from a backstop in the firing range and alerted an employee. Some employees tried attacking the hot spot with fire extinguishers but quickly realized the effort was futile, so they dialed 9-1-1 and evacuated the building.
Everybody got out of the firing range and retail shop safely.
Once the rubber in the range got going, Lewis said, it was an extremely difficult fire to put out. Firefighters battled until about 9 p.m.
"I can't thank the Bergen volunteers enough," Lewis said. "I mean, they're incredible. They came, and that's the only reason there's anything here to look at now."
The walls are still standing, but Lewis said professionals will need to evaluate how much of the building, which contains a lot of wood construction, can be saved.
"The important thing is the concrete looks salvageable," Lewis said. "The electrical infrastructure, the plumbing, the septic system, all that is some of the most expensive parts of the building, and that all looks saveable."
The fire got into the rafters and spread across the building, so the store sustained a good deal of smoke and water damage.
All of the firearms in the store were safely retrieved.
"They're at a secure off-site storage location right now under armed guard," Lewis said. "A lot of the ammunition was saved. Luckily, the fire didn't get anywhere close to where the ammunition was stored."
The business is open on a limited basis, Lewis said, particularly for customers who purchased firearms and were waiting on registration with the Clerk's Office before picking them up.
Lewis already has a tentative meeting set up with the town's planning board. He's also working on trucking a portable firing range up from North Carolina so he can provide range service for his customers during the rebuild. He had been planning an expansion anyway, acquiring a couple of neighboring acres and including a possible indoor/outdoor firing range. He said he will talk about sound and safety issues with the town with a possible outdoor firing range in place during the rebuild.
There's also the annual freedom festival in June. That, he said, will go on as planned even if it means setting up 20 tents.
The planned After Hours event with the Chamber of Commerce, scheduled for April, may need to be rescheduled, he said.
While Lewis expects insurance to cover all of the property losses, that doesn't replace any lost business in the coming months. He said he isn't worried about it.
"We're gonna be okay," Lewis said. "I just have so much faith in this community and not just Genesee County, but like the gun community and not just the community in general, but all of Western New York. We've got an amazing customer base behind us. And I know they'll be there to support us."
He said members who stay current on their dues or sign up for new memberships will get their names memorialized in some way, such as a plaque, in the rebuilt business.
Information about membership can be found at nytfp.com.
The mother of one of his employees set up a GoFundMe page to help assist, and Lewis said he's grateful for the support.
"I'm too modest, I guess. I don't feel right setting that up myself, but someone else felt like it was necessary, and I'm forever grateful to them," Lewis said. "But I'm putting it out there now, so you know, for anybody who donates, we're gonna donate half of that money, whatever is raised, to the Bergen Fire Department because, like I said, we'd be looking at just a pile of rubble completely if it wasn't for them and all those volunteers. It was amazing. I always knew I had a lot of customers that were firemen, but I saw it on Friday. I saw how many of my customers showed up in turn-out gear to save this place. It was touching."
Photos by Howard Owens.
