Cause Of Catoosa Fire Ruled Accidental

Tuesday, January 30th 2007, 1:05 pm

By: News On 6

A fire at a Catoosa furniture store Monday night caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages. Grizzly Mountain Mercantile is now temporarily shut down. And News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims says the owners are trying to salvage what they can.

Grizzly Mountain Mercantile owner Marc Long saw the custom-made furniture that he poured his blood, sweat and tears into, go up in flames Monday night.

â€œYeah we built this building ground up, its really hard to see it like this," Long said.

When fire crews arrived, heavy black smoke was spilling from the Grizzly Mountain Mercantile building. Catoosa fire says it started in the back of the building. They believe a shelf fell, striking a junction box, which ignited some sawdust on the floor.

"Never ever been through a fire in my whole life, said Long. â€œAnd itâ€™s really devastating. You can't describe, there's nothing you can do about it"

With the back of his building melted and charred, it's hard to look on the bright side. But Marc Long and his wife are thankful their supply of Aspen wood from Colorado didn't catch fire.

A firewall protected their showroom, and practically everything in it is still in tact. But now the Longs are dealing with another problem, smoke damage. The Longs say they are planning to hire some specialists to deal with the smell. And they believe some of the finished furniture pieces can be buffed and resealed, making them as good as new.

â€œIt actually saved a lot of our product next door and we'll be able to salvage a lot of that,â€ Long said. â€œGets us back up and running a lot earlier."

The couple says they built this business out of nothing once, and they can do it again.

Grizzly Mountain Mercantile supplies 250 wholesalers, including Bass Pro, so the Longs say they can't be down for too long. They plan to get back up and running in the next couple of weeks.