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Ed Yeates reporting The owner of a building destroyed in a raging fire last Friday says, all is not lost.
The building's gone. But, the company spirit is still intact. The rebuilding has begun.
Jeffrey Cobabe and Associates' woodworking shop burned to the ground in a blazing inferno.
For a closely knit group of craftsmen who pride themselves in building and restoring custom pieces of furniture - this was hard to take!
Large panes of priceless antique stained glass melted away in this fire, along with a classic antique sofa. Irreplaceable paintings and drawings were also lost.
Jeffrey Cobabe / Cobabe & Associates: "We were in the process of building a beautiful kitchen, not a restoration, it was new but it was in old world tradition with gothic arches and solid walnut."
But tonight, pieces of that kitchen - removed before the fire - were being installed in the customer's home.
Connie Smith / Customer: "Every stick of wood that came out of that shop was more than a stick of wood. It just seemed to have a heart and soul"
In an employee's home shop, furniture rebuilding will begin as early as tomorrow.
Jeffrey Cobabe / Cobabe & Associates: "I've gone from the lowest I've ever been to the highest I've ever been. From the point of despair, to what are we going to do - we've lost it all - to the point of the guys rallying around you and put their arms around me and say Jeff, we can do this."
A competitor, Granite Mill is offering it's own facility as a temporary home, sharing shifts on both sides of the clock.
And wood suppliers are helping out as well.
Gordon Syme / Employee, Jeffrey Cobabe & Associates: "They called and told us that they'll just put us at the front of the list so that we can continue to have wood come in."
Classic work like this for clients like the Cathedral of the Madeliene will soon be on the tables again.
Jeffrey Cobabe / Cobabe & Associates:"We haven't lost a company, the company is intact. We're going on and this is going to be bigger and better and stronger."
Jeffrey Cobabe and Associates may literally rise from these ashes, if Salt Lake Mill - which owns the property - decides to rebuild here.
Lloyd's of London, which insures the company, is scheduled to arrive tomorrow to survey the damage.
