Fire destroys Red Cedar Antiques in Williamston
WILLIAMSTON, Mich. – A fire that started early Thursday morning destroyed Red Cedar Antiques off Grand River Avenue in Williamston.
Tod Parkhill owns Lovely Junk and operates his business out of Red Cedar Antiques.
“My stand had window access here and that’s where it would have been.” You can still see some of my books there that I had,” Parkhill said. “There’s a crate of records over there behind what I think is the roof.
The fire destroyed everything.
“We got a call around 10.20am this morning we had smoke coming out of the building so we turned off and when we got there we had a fire at the back of the building,” the manager said. and Niesa Fire Chief Michael Yanz.
Mason, Delhi, Lainsburg, Fowlerville, Meridian Township, Perry and Dansville all responded to the incident. Yanz said no injuries were reported.
When he got the call this morning, Parkhill said he was hoping for the best, until he saw the building.
“There’s this lonely thought in the back of your mind that maybe it’s an isolated fire, maybe there’s no smoke damage, maybe there’s no water damage,” Parkhill said. “But that’s the whole place. It’s a total loss.
From his commercial objects which he spent time restoring, to a mural he painted on the exterior of the building.
“I worked with Todd last year to put a mural in the front corner near the entrance to give the place a little facelift and in fact you can still see a corner of it there,” Parkhill said.
Everything is gone except for a framed firefighter patch that somehow came out of the fire undamaged.
“As far as you know, everything is fine until something unexpected happens and there is nothing left,” Parkhill said.
Parkhill said he hopes Red Cedar Antiques will get back up and running, but he doesn’t know if that’s where it will end up again.
“I don’t know how long it will take, so I don’t think Red Cedar Antiques is where Lovely Junk will be anymore. Which is a shame,” Parkhill said. “I liked this place.”
Firefighters are still investigating the cause of the fire.
Parkhill said as far as what’s next for him, he’ll take it one day at a time starting with the Capital City Creatives Crawl on June 25.
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