The owners of Studio Six Limited are praising the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department and others who came to their assistance during a fire which heavily damaged the business Friday afternoon.
In an interview with WJLE Friday evening, Shan Burklow said their loss is substantial but they are grateful no one was injured “There’s nothing like when you receive a phone call, that your business that you’ve had for seven years is on fire. We raced up here as quickly as we could. When we got here smoke was just bellowing out everywhere. The firefighters were on the scene and working aggressively to put out the fire. We were deeply concerned for our neighbors. We were concerned for downtown. We didn’t know if other businesses would be involved or other apartment buildings would be involved so our prayer was just that they could contain the fire, which they did beautifully. It completely destroyed the interior of our building but that was okay as long as everybody was safe.”
In a show of appreciation, Burklow says Studio Six Limited is planning to have a charity fundraiser for the fire department. “We are so grateful to the fire department and to everyone who volunteered and came out and worked selflessly for hours. We did not have a charity for the fashion show and we had been praying for the Lord to give us the right charity and for some reason we just couldn’t come up with what we needed to do so today after the fire and seeing all the things the fire fighters were having to go through and the equipment that they needed and didn’t have that would have made their job easier, we decided that we will raise money for the fire department. We are deeply grateful to them.”
Burklow says Studio Six Limited, which has been in the process of phasing out it’s downtown location, may still be reached on line at www.studiosixlimited.com. “We have been working out of Cookeville and slowly closing down the Smithville office a little at a time so we could make the move and transition, but we had not moved out any of our stuff . The photography studio is now completely closed down at this time due to fire. Our loss is substantial but you may still reach us on line.”
Burklow says a lot of studio equipment still in the building at the time of the fire including props, backdrops, stands, lighting, and other items were damaged or destroyed. Even some of the family’s personal belongings stored upstairs were lost.
A video of the fire is available at www.smithvillefire.com. on the Hotshots page.
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