Like everything else on the internet have been greatly exaggerated. So, for anyone who wants to know whassup, here's the deal.
As everyone knows, I am a cheap kinda store owner. IMHO investing in your store is done not for your customers, but for your ego. We small business people are pretty egotistical, I am not more humble, I'm just a little weird. I guess I never outgrew the hobby side of this, so the way I always tried to improve my store was with better prices and selection and healthier livestock at lower prices. I never gave a tinker's damn what people thought of my store. I was more concerned with the fish. I guess I have tunnel vision. Other than a few exceptions, most everyone agrees that my fish are top quality and my prices the best around, however, I digress.
The point of all this is that last April I did something uncharecteristic. I bought a new piece of equipment for the store, purely for the comfort of my fellow fish enthusiasts and it was the reason for all the calamity.
After 85 degree temps in March, I thought I would get ahead of the game and bought a brand spankin new, shiny, portable AC unit. I purchased the unit from Mennards on April 20. On June 15, in the middle of the night, when the unit was turned off, it caught on fire.
Luckily, my obsession is, always has been and always will be, the fish so, it is kind of hard to burn down a 1000sq ft building with over 5600 gallons of water in it. The AC unit burned into an unrecognizable lump on the garage floor, but it burst a 30g salt water tank behind it and melted a utiliy sink and the PVC plumbing, which created a fountain, thereby putting out the fire.
However, even though, according to my CCTV Surveilance system, the fire only burned about 20 minutes, it put a tremendous amount of toxic smoke in the air and raised the temp in the room to around 1200 degrees, according to the fire marshall.
The structure was undamaged, but the air delivery system was melted. You know it had to be hot to turn 2" sched 40 PVC into spaghetti, and the temperatures in the tanks and tubs increased dramatically. Additionally, the soot from the burning AC unit covered every surface and polluted every tank in the place. I lost all but three of our salt water fish and around half of the freshwater.
The next day we took 10 one gallon ziplock bags of dead fish, mostly show Africans, out of the tanks. It was one of the saddest days of my life. The place was a wreck, the air was stifling, the temps were in the high nineties and, of course, we had no AC. So, that kinda sucked. Honestly, when I saw the mess, I was ready to quit. I have been through a lot in the nine years since I opened this store, but this almost crushed me. However, I picked myself up, dusted myself off and got to work.
I've never had much faith in insurance. I only bought the business policy because the agent was a nice fella and I wanted to buy something else from him since he did such a good job on all my other policies, so, wtf Gordy, I said, gimme that business contents policy.
Well, when my agent saw the mess the next morning and heard the AC unit was the likely cause, he told me not to worry. So, I am in the best possible position with the insurance. They get to replace everything and write some henious sized checks to rebuild the place better than it ever has been, plus they get to pass all the bills along to the AC manufacturer's liablity insurance. So, not only have I been off work all summer (first vacation in 12 years) but I got paid for it. Additionally, they paid off on the $15,000 worth of fish I lost and are rebuilding the place in grand fashion.
We're getting more insulation, a sheetrock firewall, all new doors and windows, commercial grade, plastic paneling like the type they use in public swimming pools, epoxy floor paint, new tanks, new lights, new tank racks. The place is going to be immaculate and it is all being done for me. I guess it really has worked out in our favor.
Of course, it ain't all a bed of roses. There wasn't enough insurance on contents to cover our dry goods, so we will have to clean that stuff up and sell it at a discount. We also have to put the entire store back together, including cleaning and painting the dry goods shelves, the front counter, the appliances, etc, etc, etc. So, now that my vacation is ending, I am going to be really busy.
The work is 80% done and the place looks magnificent. I will be taking pics and I have decidced to share them with you folks first. So, you'll see our new, improved store before anyone else.
We are going to have water in tanks and be selling fish, hopefully, by this time next week. The rest of the work to put humpty back together again will take most of the fall but, hey, wtf, I'm well rested and ready, so look out world, here we come again...
Larry Utterback, Proprietor
Tropical Tails Aquarium Shop
5419 S Mission rd, Mt Pleasant MI 48858
(989) 773-6626
