Nelson's Glass Service opens 8 months after fire

Nelson Lyons saved the photos taken of his business in the days after Oct. 18, before it looked the way it does now.

In one, a flame-blackened wall has been doused with water from firefighters' hoses as they worked to save what they could of the burning building; in another, an aged brick structure, half charred, stands where a gravel lot now opens the view to South 21st Street.

The tectum roof in the adjacent shop area that melted with the heat has since been replaced, as have the cracked glass panes in the windows and doors.

A brand-new office area greets Nelson's Glass Service customers stopping by for a service or estimate, and -- unless Nelson were to show them the newspaper clipping from Oct. 19, headlined "Guard dog escapes fire at Nelson's Glass Service; paperwork, offices a loss" -- there's little trace of the blaze that swept the building eight months ago.

Lyons and his sons, Kevin and Rick, have spent those months preparing the business for its reopening this week. After what they consider a too-long stretch of being closed down, the owners are eager to once again open their doors to customers.

"We've had a lot of people wait on us. They've been waiting," Nelson Lyons said Friday as he walked through the new waiting area he and his sons renovated themselves.

The fire started on a Monday morning in the office portion of the facility, where an electric heater had been left running. The guard dog, Whiskey, was saved from the blaze; by some stroke of luck, he'd been kept outside that day instead of at his normal station in the office building.

Officials estimated at the time that the fire caused about $50,000 worth of damage to the facility -- then a three-building complex -- located on 21st Street adjacent to the railroad tracks.

Lyons and his crew have put about $90,000 worth of renovations into the new facility and demolished the old brick building on its west side, which formerly was connected to the shop by the office building and had been used for storage.

The office building, a total loss, also was leveled.

In addition to the new office and adjacent glass-cutting area, the shop, which sustained heavy smoke damage, also has been renovated. A storage area behind it was barely touched by the fire and required little work, Nelson said.

The post-fire cleanup and ensuing renovations had been grueling, Kevin said.

"We had a month in cleaning before we could even start working," he said.

Though they've done a few glass jobs since October while renovations progressed, the Lyonses are ready to see a steady stream of business once their doors open again for regular hours.

The employees' wages had been covered by insurance and the odd jobs had brought in a bit of income, Nelson said, but "nothing to make a living off of."

The elder Lyons has been in the glass service business since 1970, moving to the 21st Street location from downtown Newark in 1997.

Needless to say, he's not planning on additional renovations during his career, he said.

Then he looked toward the "temporarily closed" sign at the 21st Street entrance to the business and noted it finally would have to be changed.

The ribbons closing off the road, too, would have to be removed so cars could come in.

He and Kevin had to chuckle at the word "temporary."

"We didn't know it'd be eight months," Kevin said.

Nelson's Glass Service is located at 160 S. 21st St., Newark, and can be reached at (740) 345-1637. It will be open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.