🔒Three Natick businesses rise from the ashes of July fire

When Jill Hourihan heard of a fire in July at the downtown Natick building where her dog grooming service was based, she made the heartbreaking decision to watch.

“The day of the fire, I knew that letting go of that building was the only thing I could do that day,” Hourihan said. “There was nothing else to do.”

Now, nearly exactly four months later, Hourihan is about to move on officially. She’s found a new home for Metro Pets Natick about two blocks away at 28 Washington St.

Metro Pets Natick, which was located in the basement at the building at the west edge of Natick Common, is the latest business to get back into operation after the eight-alarm fire destroyed the entire block of businesses.

Also lost in the fire was Nancy Kelley Dance Studio, the knitting supply store Iron Horse, the Christian Science Reading Room and the Chinese restaurant King Wok. The list would be longer if not for another tenant, Robjets D’Art relocating down South Main Street just beforehand, and two others, the vintage store Second Chances and Natick Center Graphics, having recently closed.

Help from the community, state

The overnight fire was devastating to Natick, but the community was generous in helping those affected, said Athena Pandolf, the executive director of the Natick Center Cultural District, which supports arts and culture in the neighborhood and has pitched into help businesses get back on their feet.

Contributions have exceeded $36,000 to help businesses find new locations and to make ends meet in the meantime.

“Natick is known for its community,” Pandolf said. “I get a lot of people who come to me from outside Natick who are fascinated and drawn to Natick for the support people give to one another.

“It’s been very difficult for them,” she added, “and it’s something none of us have dealt with before.”

The state has pitched in, too.

In August, the Gov. Charlie Baker Administration offered $400,000 to help businesses affected by the fire reopen, with loans of $5,000 to $50,000 available. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue waived any penalties normally levied for late payments for those businesses.

The July 22 fire destroyed the 13,000-square-foot building spanning the whole block along South Main Street between West Central Street and Pond Street.

The fire remains under joint investigation by the Natick fire and police departments and State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Finding the energy to recover

Hourihan said she began looking for new space the next day, but the process was daunting.

“At that point, you’re tired,” she said. “It’s emotionally draining, so I would do a little bit at a time.”

Hourihan expects to open at the corner of Washington Street and South Avenue before the end of the month. In the meantime, the business has operated out of Hourihan’s living room through the purchase of mobile dog grooming equipment. For a short period, Metro Pets also operated out of another dog grooming business on the two days a week the business was normally closed.

Metro Pets is the latest tenant of the building to find a new home.

The Christian Science Reading Room reopened at the end of September at a new space at 11 Washington St. The center, which is affiliated with the Christian Science Church and offers books for reference and lending, got a boost in donated furniture from a fellow reading room in Maryland, manager Martha Madden said.

Books and other things could be replaced, Madden said, finding a silver lining in the reading room losing all of its materials.

“We can put (the reading room) somewhere else, but the service to the community couldn’t be lost,” she said. “When we reopened, people would pop in and say, 'We’re so glad to see you up and running again.’”

Nancy Kelley Dance Studio reopened in October just across the street at 11 Pond St. at the former home of Maize Restoration & Remodeling. Iron Horse is still looking for a new location, while King Wok doesn’t appear to be reopening, Pandolf said.

The owners of King Wok could not be reached for comment.

An adjacent row of businesses – Cobbler Shop West, Clip & Dip Dog Grooming, Sportsman’s Barber Shop, La Creme Salon and Best Nail Co – in a building sharing a wall with the fire-destroyed building were also initially affected by the disaster.

Clip & Dip Dog Grooming first dealt with smoke damage – and then a belief by some in town that the group of businesses were also going to be lost to the fire, even though the structure was not compromised.

“We had a fire wall,” Rosemary Wright, the owner of Clip & Dip, said of a protective barrier between the buildings. “We’ve had rumors that people are taking the building down. That’s not happening.

“We had to close for five days,” she said, “and that was bad enough.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed Sportsman's Barber Shop, not Bruno's Barber Shop, in a building adjacent to the one destroyed by fire.