RIP Malibu Cleaners

Kind of ironic that I wrote a post from there on Saturday, because what we affectionately called "M1" is no more.

I received this picture from my very awesome manager, Rochelle, at 10:21 PM last night. I was flabbergasted. I was the last one to work there before the fire. The owners were there when I left, but I was the last one working. I couldn't believe my eyes. INSANE!

I also started a new job at Sunset Elementary this morning. How crazy is it that God provided a job that would sustain me through this short term unemployment at Malibu. This morning after I got ready for work I googled it and the pictures that came up from The Spectrum made me sick. (follow the link to see all the pictures).

These were especially troubling: (it won't let me upload them so my commentary will be by picture number). Image 8: The ball of fire looks to be directly where the cash register was located. Large orders were kept just behind the counter. Also, I suffered through washing all of those windows just the day before:( Image 13: The flames seem to be coming from the boiler room. Image 1: I can only assume the fire was being fed by the dry cleaning chemical in that area of the store. Unfortunately several thousand dollars worth of chemical were transferred from the Red Cliffs location to "M1" Saturday afternoon.

After I got off work at the school today I drove down to check it out. This is what I saw:

Heartbreaking. Though not nearly as sickening as the night photos with flames. The store is a total loss. Nothing I could see is salvageable. The eeriest thing I saw though (but couldn't get close enough to get a picture of) were the charred, empty hangers, whose clothes have been burned away.

Also this:

Which is the same washer which was featured in my "Things I love about Malibu Cleaners" post.

For now, all operations have been moved to the other location across town. There are plans to rebuild, and when I was there, the framers were already there checking it out. This just really seems surreal to me, but I am so grateful that no one was there when it started.