MOSES LAKE — Salon Envy owner Heather Kerekffy said her husband wasn’t sure she should enter the remains of her business, destroyed by fire Jan. 19. And it was pretty bad, she said – everything was gone except for some pieces of metal art on the walls.

“It was a very hard loss for me. Everything was in there.” Everything Kerekffy and the three other stylists at the salon needed for work was burned to ashes – or melted, like the plastic on the chairs. Even their combs and brushes were gone.

But Kerekffy, her fellow stylists and the business bounced back. Salon Envy reopened in a new location, 317 South Ash St., March 6. "We have our ribbon cutting ceremony next Friday (March 30)," she said.

The spectacular fire destroyed both Salon Envy and Chico’s Pizza, a longtime local landmark. Cleanup and rebuilding are underway at the salon’s former site on Valley Road.

“We doubled the size” in the new salon, Kerekffy said. There’s an open front space, with two separate rooms for stylists in the center and a storage room for supplies in the back. “It’s all slowly coming together. Actually, it came together really fast.”

The stylists who worked out of Salon Envy decided to stay together if they could. They include Cathy Seibel (with 38 years in the business), Keli Howard (28 years), and Jayci Wahl and Chelsi Miller, who have each worked at the salon about a year. “We have a tight-knit bond as a group, and this fire proved it, because we stayed together.”

Kerekffy said friends, family, even strangers rallied around in the aftermath of the fire. The chairs in the reception area, the coffee pot, a lot of the amenities for customers were purchased with the proceeds of a GoFundMe account set up by friends. “I have a great insurance company,” she said, and the adjusters working with her encouraged her to reopen as quickly as possible. “The owner of the building has been phenomenal too.”

Salon Envy sells Surface beauty products, and the company owner and its staff also provided support and encouragement, she said.

Salon owners also rallied around to help Kerekffy and her team while they were rebuilding. Salon Envy wasn’t a member of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, but chamber leaders gave them support. “We have to have each other’s backs in this community. And we do.”

The remodeled space needed new plumbing and electrical work, paint, some interior walls. Turning it into a salon required new sinks, new chairs, new equipment down to the combs and brushes.

In the meantime the stylists worked out of temporary quarters on Blades on Broadway, offered free of charge by its owner. “We were there for the whole month of February.” Kerekffy and the guys at Blades were friends already, but “there is a definite bond with Blades now.”

Kerekffy said she learned some lessons that she has passed on to other salon owners, the first being that they should have good insurance, more than just the basics.

“Things are going to get better.” The fire was a bad blow, but “it’s been a great opportunity for us,” she said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.