'We were getting ready for Mother’s Day': Worcester retail plaza leveled after blaze

WORCESTER – For Edvin Ramirez, owner of the Worcester Flower Shop at 808 Pleasant St. with his wife, this Mother’s Day was shaping up to be the young couple’s best yet.

Within hours of locking up their flower boutique Monday, they were out of business due to a fast-spreading, three-alarm fire that ripped through the retail plaza, destroying their business and another.

“We were having a tremendous year in sales, so we were pretty busy,” Ramirez said. “We were getting ready for Mother’s Day so we were fully packed inside. There’re quite of bit of losses in there.”

Ramirez said Mother’s Day is the biggest holiday when it comes to flower orders and this year’s Mother’s Day was shaping up to be the biggest for the independently-owned flower shop. Last year, Worcester Flower Shop made between $10,000 to $15,000 in Mother’s Day sales. Ramirez expected to top that this year.

“This is our biggest year. We’ve been growing and growing every year,” Ramirez said in a telephone interview Tuesday morning. “We were up in sales but now we’re out of business.”

Two weeks away from Mother’s Day, Ramirez said, they already had close to 50 flower orders for the holiday, which translates to $3,000 to $4,000 in flower sales. Due to the fire, he has been calling customers all morning Tuesday about refunds and apologizing for not being able to carry out their flower orders.

“I feel bad for them,” Ramirez said.

Besides flowers that were part of their last delivery this past Friday, Ramirez lost a walk-in cooler and a pair of computers (one with family photos).

A longtime Worcester resident who recently moved to Webster, Ramirez has owned the Worcester Flower Shop for the last four years. Besides losing his independently owned business, Ramirez said it’s heartbreaking that they lost all the beautiful flowers in the fire.

“We missed the fire by about an hour. We left around 4:45 and I got the first call from the owner around 6,” Ramirez said. “We thank God that nothing happened to us with me and my wife there.”

The couple rushed back to the scene as soon as they could and they were there in early morning Tuesday when they were demolishing their business.

Ramirez said he needs to speak to the property owner to see what his plans are before deciding the future, if any, of his flower shop. “As of right now, we just don’t know,” Ramirez said.

The fire moved quickly through the retail plaza Monday night, resulting in the loss of the property.

The building, with addresses from 806 to 812 Pleasant St., was the home of Worcester Flower Shop and U-Home Decor Store and the former location of Corner Grille and Lulu's Bakery. At the time of the fire, about 6:15 p.m., the businesses were closed and there were no one inside.

Hours after the fire, crews leveled what remained of the burned-out building.

Assistant Chief Adam Roche said firefighters went into a defensive mode of attack almost immediately.

“We got a call just after 6 of smoke coming from a door and roof of the structure,” Roche said. “The door the smoke was coming from led to the basement. So that led us to believe it was a basement fire.”

Roche said the first firefighters had trouble making it into the basement, with fire conditions so advanced that the district chief on scene made the decision to go to a defensive attack.

The air around the fire was occasionally harsh with smoke visible several blocks down on Pleasant Street.

“The smoke was horrendous,” Roche said. “It was just hanging low around the street level and filled the whole neighborhood.”

George and Maria Makos, who own and operate Pleasant Market at 2 Richmond Ave., noticed the fire across the street and called 911.

“I saw smoke coming from the corner of the building,” Maria Makos said. “It’s very sad that we lost a building over there and the businesses.”

“We usually stay open to 9 o’clock but we left 8:30 because too much smoke in here,” George Makos said. “So we went home (to 18 Richmond Ave.). There was smoke in our house too…Smoke was everywhere.”

Maria Makos said she noticed one of the owners of the flower shop at the scene.

“Last night, the flower girl was there, crying,” she said.

George Makos praised the firefighters.

“My wife called. The firefighters came right away,” he said. “They did a good job saving the nearby houses. No damage.”

Firefighters contained the blaze to the building, keeping it from spreading to a residential portion of upper Pleasant Street in the city’s Tatnuck area.

Roche said they did have concerns that the fire could spread to surrounding homes and, in a preventive measure, evacuated a few immediately adjacent homes.

The city’s building commissioner and the commissioner of inspectional services determined for public safety that the building would be “folded in” so there would be no collapse concerns, Roche said.

One firefighter was transported to the hospital for evaluation and was released, while three other firefighters suffered minor injuries, Roche said.

The building was razed around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The origin of the fire was not immediately known, Roche said.

The one-story plaza, at Pleasant Street and St. Elmo Road, formally Tronic Square, has been home to a number of restaurants and other businesses over the years. Residents might remember the Pasta Pantry or the Corner Grille. Professional Pharmacy and Dooley's Cleaners are among the former occupants.

Worcester property records list the owner of the building as Zoe and Isaak DiMokas.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Fire at retail building on Pleasant Street in Worcester injures 4