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Luxury storage units are bought as condos
By Bill Lilley
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008
SHARON TWP: A three-alarm fire in a storage facility on state Route 18 in Sharon Township Monday destroyed more than 30 units filled with luxury vehicles and other valuables.
The fire may have started in a unit in Building E of the Store-With-Us compound in the 1100 block of Medina Road (Route 18).
Firefighters from Sharon Township and 11 other departments, including Copley, Bath, Fairlawn and Norton, were called to the scene about 11:30 a.m.
While no one was injured, there were a lot of damaged emotions.
''Lifetime memories gone up in smoke,'' said Bath resident Bob Hill, vice president of EPC Inc. and owner of one of the storage units. ''Everything we had in there was insured, but how do you replace one-of-a-kind things and lifetime memories?
''My wife, Janet, is a special person to me, and 15 years ago, we had the first new car she owned, a 1973 Barracuda, restored from a bucket of rust to a beautiful car. If it had been wrecked, we could fix it. But with the fire, there's simply no way to replace that. It's devastating.''
Store-With-Us is not a typical storage facility. The 40-foot-by-20-foot units are condominiums that are purchased by people who have too many vehicles and other valuables to store at home.
Hill, who also stored a 40-foot Holiday Rambler recreational vehicle and a 1974 Plymouth Cuda, said he felt even worse for Medina resident Don Stiles.
''He had a Porsche racing car in one of the four units he has here,'' Hill said, ''and there was only one other like it in the world. It had raced at Le Mans. There's no way to replace that.''
Sharon Township Fire Chief Robert Haas said he had no idea how the fire started.
''We think it started in the sixth unit in from the end,'' Haas said, ''because it was fully engulfed when we got here. We also think somebody was in there, because the door was open.''
Haas said his department got a call around 11:30 a.m. from somebody who saw smoke coming from Building E.
Haas said it took about 90 minutes to get the fire under control.''But with everything that has caught fire in all of these units, it probably won't be completely out until [this] morning,'' he said. ''We'll continue to investigate the fire.''
Bill Schoenstein, vice president of Storage World Condominium, said Store-With-Us has nine buildings with 478 units. Building E was built around 1998.
''This is the first time anything like this happened since we started here 22 years ago,'' Schoenstein said. ''This [fire] is everybody's biggest fear.''
He said that Building E will be rebuilt.
''But nobody can replace some of the things that the fire took,'' he said. '' . . . It's very, very unfortunate and we feel very badly for the people who lost things they treasure.''
Bill Lilley can be reached at 330-996-3811 or blilley@thebeaconjournal.com.
SHARON TWP: A three-alarm fire in a storage facility on state Route 18 in Sharon Township Monday destroyed more than 30 units filled with luxury vehicles and other valuables.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 08:42 AM, 10/28/2008
Just devastating, it appears to be arson, someone trying to get a quick buck at others expense.
Posted 10:01 AM, 10/28/2008
A fire sprinkler system seems like a luxury until you read about something like this.
Stow, OH
Posted 03:39 PM, 10/28/2008
Geesz ,I thought these places were made of metal?
akron, OH
Posted 11:16 AM, 10/29/2008
shuld have bought gold bullion!!!
