GRAND RAPIDS, OH (WTOL) - Last month, WTOL 11 brought you the story of an early morning roaring electrical fire at a local business.
Despite the damage, Jeffers Greenhouse said they would open on time this season.
Now that spring has sprung, is business, in fact, blooming?
"It was three weeks away from opening day. Everything was full. Everything was blooming. Everything was grown, almost completely fully grown, so it was tough," Owner, Trish Jeffers said.
As promised, Jeffers Greenhouse is open for business. But now, the family fears that the community still thinks they're closed due to the tragedy, and worries that slow business could cause them even more problems.
"We've had lots of help from the community and family and friends. People, customers have come out and brought food and water and kept all the people that were working fed, and we were able to rebuild and open on time," said Jeffers.
Their greenhouse supplier has donated some goods as well.
The Jeffers don't live onsite, so when they got the call in the middle of the night about the fire, they feared the worst.
"It was terrifying knowing that all our hard work that we've been working on all winter could be up in smoke. Literally," said Jeffers.
When firefighters arrived on scene the barn and the greenhouse were engulfed in flames. Fortunately, fire crews came from all over the area, and sprung into action, minimizing the damage.
The Jeffers daughters, Hanna and Michaela Jeffers, are hard at work helping their parents rebuild.
"I was out of town but my mom told me. I honestly didn't know how bad it was until a week later when I came back, and everything was like, gone. Everything was burned, and it smelled really bad," Hanna said.
The family is very grateful for the help they've received to rebuild quickly. But, not everything has been restored yet, and they're still waiting on insurance.
Visitors can come out any day of the week, to get gardening needs from a family owned local small business, that's been serving our community for decades.
