The Symons Valley Ranch Farmers' Market was gutted by a fire on Thursday morning and management at the facility say there is no doubt that they will rebuild it.
Fire crews were called to the market in the 14500 block of Symons Valley Road N.W. just after 6:00 a.m. after residents reported hearing explosions and seeing smoke coming from the building.
The facility was fully engulfed in flames when crews arrived and it took firefighters about six hours to get the fire under control.
Shawnna Taylor runs 1 Cup Coffee Club and says the Symons Valley location was her only shop. She says the loss is ‘devastating’ for all the small business owners that work there.
"The market itself has been open I think three or four years now. Any of us who have been there from the beginning know what a fight it's been to stay alive and keep the market alive." she said. "For me, this has been my only location. It's my primary location. So, for me, it's super important that this market succeeds. I have tried to get into other locations but everybody is trying to get into other locations. Everyone is trying to expand and without multiple locations, it's very difficult to make a living."
“I felt that we will go through this hard time as a team with other vendors,” said Kaori Akiyama from Sachi Japan. “I need to start finding out what the next step is, what action needs to be taken.”
Ken Aylesworth, the marketing manager for the market says the past 24 hours have been hard to handle.
"It's all settling in. This morning, when I woke up, it's the reality that we're not coming to open up the market this morning. We're coming for a recover mission to help out vendors and the community. It's tough."
He says they've already been contacted by other markets in the city and appreciate the concern for the Symons Valley Ranch vendors.
Aylesworth says the destruction of the market building is tragic, but they will rebuild. "The intent was to take this whole big facility and make it more of a part of the community than it ever was and then to be inclusive of the development of this whole area."
On Friday, the group met with the adjuster to discuss the future of the facility and say that they will work with vendors to help them get back on their feet.
"Look at their individual circumstances and what can we do, how can we help them start to generate a revenue stream absolutely as quickly as we can," said Aylesworth. “I think everybody is absolutely processing this.”
Fire investigators were not able to get into the building until late in the afternoon because it was too dangerous and are working to determine the cause of the fire.
“There were still hot spots throughout the evening and when I got here this morning they were still spraying down so they’re just being extra careful and there’s a big basement area underneath and my guess is that it’s probably unstable at this time,” said Aylesworth.
Aylesworth says the immediate goal is to set up a temporary space so people can get back to work and move their merchandise.
In the meantime, representatives from other markets in the city say they are also pitching in to help provide space for the vendors in their buildings.
