Fire damage to keep day care center closed

PALMER — In the wake of a fire that mostly destroyed the Mouse Trap Playschool, the emotions with which Jessica Nolin, her mother and the facility’s staff have dealt are akin to a death in the family.

Nolin’s mother, Marlene Stephens, owns the day care facility she started for her daughter, Nolin said, adding she’s basically grown up at the center.

“She couldn’t find a day care to put me in,” Nolin said, so her mother started one.

Over the past couple weeks, Stephens sought temporary facilities to house the center’s children. Saturday, she announced in a written statement her efforts had not been successful and the day care will remain shuttered for at least six months.

Stephens built the facility from the ground up and had been in the building for 21 years, Nolin said. Stephens had recently finished remodeling the kitchen and installing a new office when the facility caught fire Feb. 2, causing an estimated $500,000 damage. The business served an estimated 125 area children and their families.

“She had spent an entire year doing a remodel,” Nolin said. The remodeled space was open only a month and a half before it burned.

Since the fire, Nolin said it’s been a non-stop series of meetings and paperwork. The day care’s insurance company asks that everything be inventoried. Every toy had to be photographed.

“We have over 600 pictures,” Nolin said.

Her mother had just been released from the hospital where she was fighting a viral infection when the building caught fire, Nolin said. Doctors said stress from the re-model had exacerbated her mother’s illness.

“The day she was cleared to go back to work, to work part-time, was the Monday after the building burned down,” Nolin said. “She’s making a recovery but it’s not as fast as everyone would like to see.”

Part of picking up the pieces involved exploring the possibility of housing the day care in a temporary building. All of the temporary spaces she found would need work to bring them up to state codes for day cares, according to the statement Stephens released Saturday. Putting in that kind of work while at the same time reconstructing the original building would severely deplete the business’ financial resources and was simply not feasible.

“As a result, it is with our deepest sympathy that Mouse Trap staff and I … regret to inform the public that we cannot open a temporary location,” Stephens says in her statement.

Nolin said the fire started in a room untouched by the remodel — the old furnace room, which also contained a washer and dryer. But an exact cause has so far eluded fire investigators.

“As far as really knowing what happened we don’t,” Nolin said. Fire investigators told her, “Sometimes like five years down the line they figure it out.”

She said that as far as she can tell now, it looks like half of the building will have to be torn down and the other half stripped down to the studs to fix smoke and water damage.

But since the fire started in the back of the building, from the street it appears to be in good shape.

“I think a lot of people are maybe not aware of how bad the situation is on the inside,” she said.

Parents, by and large, have been incredibly supportive, Nolin said. She said the day care had a loyal clientele who liked the set-up and atmosphere of the place. She estimates 80 percent would likely return when the day care opens again.

Nolin, her mother and the Mouse Trap staff have to focus on rebuilding. Nolin said local day cares have been helpful in finding spots for the displaced children. Local officials and the insurance company have also been helpful, Nolin said.

She also said she appreciates the efforts of day care staff, five of whom have stayed on to help document the damage and field calls from parents. She said she and her mother hope to re-hire the rest of the 15-member staff when the day care reopens.

“As far as my mother’s concerned and I’m concerned, the staff that we have is really what’s built the business,” Nolin said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.