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June
17, 2011
Dockside Hatteras is
open for business after fire destroys warehouse
By IRENE NOLAN
 Meg
and Joe Klea, owners of Dockside Hatteras furniture store in Avon,
reported that they are open for business and planning to rebuild a
warehouse that was destroyed by fire early Friday morning, June 10.
The
first alarm in the two-alarm fire went out at 1:36 a.m. When the first
unit from Avon Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene eight
minutes later, the warehouse was fully involved in fire.
Eventually, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras village fire departments also
responded.
“The
fire departments were just awesome,” Joe Klea said in an interview
today, adding that he just didn’t have enough good words to describe
how hard the volunteer firefighters worked.
They watered down
the main Dockside store, two large propane tanks, several residences,
and nearby shops, including Island Spice and Wine and Frank and Fran’s,
and kept those buildings from being damaged.
Also responding to
the fire scene were Hatteras Island Rescue Squad and two ambulances
from Dare’s Emergency Medical Services. Dare County EMS transported one
firefighter to Outer Banks Hospital for heat exhaustion. Another
firefighter got something medically removed from his eye the morning
after the blaze.
The warehouse, in which Dockside stored extra
inventory, was completely destroyed. Klea said the loss would
be
more than $250,000 for the 4,750-square-foot warehouse and the contents.
He said the Dare County Fire Marshal’s office is investigating the
cause of the fire.
“We’ve been open since the day after the fire,” Klea said. “We never
closed, and we even made some sympathy sales this week!”
He
added that they were expecting new shipments next week, including
mattresses that will be stored in a trailer until the warehouse is
rebuilt, which he said will be done as quickly as possible.
The Dockside Hatteras main building was originally a movie theater that
was built in the late ‘60s.
Meg
and Joe Klea opened their store on the site in August, 1993, just three
weeks before Hurricane Emily sent flood tides from Pamlico Sound
rushing into Avon and villages to the south.
Since then, Joe said, the store has been flooded six or seven times,
though not with as much water as Emily brought.
Floods, he said, he’s used to, but fire was something he surely didn’t
expect.
The store sells furniture, accessories, and gift items and is located
at 40220 Highway 12 in Avon.
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