Smoke Damage Closes My Sister’s Place In Ansonia

My Sister’s Place, a family thrift shop on Ansonia’s Main Street that benefits the Center for Domestic Violence Services, will be closed for a week — at least — after suffering extensive smoke damage during a fire Monday morning.

The fire started in the basement of the Asylum bar and nightclub next door, but heavy smoke filled My Sister’s Place, which was packed with clothes, toys, books and a ton of other merchandise.

The busy store is unable to take merchandise donations at this time because of the smoke damage, said Debbie Soulsby, the development coordinator at BHCare.

BHCare (formerly the Birmingham Group) is the parent organization of My Sister’s Place and the Center for Domestic Violence Services (formerly known as the Umbrella program). 

The store, at 380 Main St., provides about $120,000 a year for the Center for Domestic Violence Services.

BHCare and staff from My Sister’s Place are scheduled to meet Wednesday to talk about how to proceed.

Soulsby said her organization is still trying to gauge the extent of the damage to the merchandise in the store. My Sister’s Place will be closed at least a week, she said.

The store has to be professionally cleaned — and that doesn’t include the merchandise, most of which may have to be tossed.

We’ll be holding a meeting tomorrow, putting our heads together to create an action, recovery, and marketing plan going forward,” Soulsby said. We don’t know how much of the contents are salvageable yet. But, in any case, we will need to hold collection drives and dedicate donation sites in an attempt to restock.”

My Sister’s Place was bathed in smoke during the fire, which was reported at about 4 a.m. Monday. The cause remains under investigation, but Fire Marshal Ray Tingley said Monday the fire was not intentionally set. My Sister’s Place and the Asylum building are separate structures — the basement area was separated by a wall.

Nevertheless, there was smoke from front door to back door and pretty much floor to ceiling,” Soulsby said. Even our storage area, the donation center in the back, it’s all been affected.”

A stream of customers stopped by Monday and Tuesday to donate merchandise. But the odor of smoke is still so strong in the store, the staff can’t bring in any new merchandise, Soulsby said.

People have donations. They made the effort, they put it in their car but we can’t accept them because right now we don’t have a place to put them,” she said Tuesday (March 12) afternoon. I smell like smoke myself right now because I was there this morning.”

A temporary location to accept donations may be worked out during the meeting Wednesday, Soulsby said. Church groups and other organizations have already offered to help.

Soulsby encouraged anyone trying to donate to keep in touch with My Sister’s Place through the store’s Facebook page.

We’ll be making announcements there for people who have donations. And we’ll need those donations once we are up and running again,” Soulsby said.

The store’s staff was documenting the damage Tuesday. Soulsby said it’s unclear how many items were damaged by smoke.

It’s thousands and thousands of pieces of clothing alone,” she said.

Among the possible casualties — the entire stock of Christmas decorations and other items in storage for the annual day after Thanksgiving sale. 

Christmas trees, wreaths … I don’t know if those things can be cleaned,” Soulsby said.

Soulsby hopes Valley residents keep My Sister’s Place in mind when they set out to do their spring cleaning. The store will have to be restocked.

We will really need the community’s support to restock and help My Sister’s Place recover. It is spring cleaning time and we hope that will inspire the community to clean out and donate,” she said.

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