Saturday, January 17, 2015

FIRE DESTROYS HAIR SALON IN NORMAN, OKLAHOMA



FIRE DESTROYS HAIR SALON IN NORMAN, OKLAHOMA









January 16, 2015

When Nancy Hensley locked up her salon, The Venchi, at 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, everything seemed normal.  Just hours later, The Venchi had been gutted by fire and was an entire loss.

A black styling chair was one of the few recognizable features left in the hair salon at 104 and 106 S. Crawford Avenue by the time Norman firefighters had extinguished the blaze.
Hensley said she worked on the shop for about six months to get it ready to open. It had been in operation about a year.

While Hensley said she is grateful no one was injured in the fire, tears slid down her cheek as she looked at the blackened ruin that had once been her dream business.
“I can’t believe this,” she said.

Hensley said she has a friend with a shop who will allow her to take care of her clients until she figures out what to do.

Deputy Fire Chief Jim Bailey said the call came in around 5:30 p.m. that a commercial business in downtown Norman was on fire. Norman Police Officer Robert Maldanado was one of the first on the scene after he saw smoke and responded, but with the hair salon so near the Norman police station and a local fire station, everyone was already on the way.

Transcript reporter Mack Burke was also one of the first on the scene. While outside of the nearby newspaper offices, Burke saw smoke and walked over to check it out. Things unfolded quickly after that as smoke turned into a flash of fire, followed by more smoke.

Norman firefighters forced entry into the vacant building and black smoke billowed from the open door. A ladder to the roof allowed firefighters to attack the blaze from multiple directions.