Rising from the ashes

After a fire destroyed ELM’s headquarters, the company lost 30 years of records. Bruce Moore hopes to move into a new building, above, this summer.
Photo: Eastern Land Management One hot July night in 2008, Bruce Moore regretted sharing a building with a swimming pool company. 

A fire had started and the pool liquids acted as a catalyst. Moore could only sit and watch his landscaping company’s offices go up in flames.

“It got a fair amount of a head start, and because of the (pool) chemicals, it was an extremely hot fire,” says Moore, president of Stamford, Connecticut’s Eastern Land Management. “In essence, it destroyed half of the building.”

The ELM’s offices just happened to be in that half of the building. Instead of seeing desks, computers and business files, Moore only saw a hazardous material site. 
 
“It was pretty difficult to watch,” Moore says. “At that point, there was nothing we could do, and basically, that was the attitude I took. There are certain things you can control and things you can’t.”

Thirty years of documents, photographs and memories were destroyed on that Friday night. Because of the chemicals from the pool company, no one was allowed on site for a month. A firewall prevented the fire from spreading to the shop area, so the trucks and equipment were saved. The building next door allowed ELM to move in, and the company is still occupying the temporary quarters today. ELM was able to relocate its trucks and equipment to a temporary location, and on Monday, business went on as usual.

“The good news is that (the fire) didn’t have any affect on our operations directly,” Moore says. ELM kept rolling because their server was recovered.

“Through some grace of God, it was intact, but my laptop was literally melted onto my desk,” Moore says. “That was really golden – the angel sitting on our shoulder.”

Still, Moore encourages businesses to have a good records’ retention program and proper insurance. ELM now backs up its files at an off-site location.

“It was emotional to see 30-plus years of things lost,” Moore says. “We lost a lot of our collection of photos. A lot of stuff that just can’t be replaced. Business documents are one thing, but we had accumulated a lot of history.”

Even though the company was fortunate to find temporary quarters next door to the burned building, the situation is “still more inconvenient” than the 60 employees of Eastern Land Management expected.

The company purchased a new building in November 2009, and after indoor and outdoor renovations, plans to move in this summer. ELM benefitted from the federal economic stimulus package, and was able to have some fees waived after financing their purchase through a Small Business Association loan, Moore says.

But even with the setbacks, Moore says ELM has had excellent numbers. “We haven’t enjoyed the peaks, but we don’t suffer through the valleys either,” he says. “We are seeing growth. We’ve still seen our maintenance accounts go up by about 10 percent, so we’re doing OK.”

And the company is still looking to grow. Moore’s son has joined the business and has helped put together a five-year business plan. Moore says he’s ready to take it to the next level.

“As distressing as it was, it was very comforting to see the support we got from the community. It was just tremendous,” he says.

The author is an intern at Lawn & Landscape magazine.