Salon Envy owner plans to reopen

MOSES LAKE — The owner and staff of a hairstyling salon destroyed in a spectacular fire last Saturday will be setting up shop in temporary quarters Tuesday. Salon Envy owner Heather Kerekffy said she’s working on reopening in a new location.

The Salon Envy staff temporarily will be working out of Blades on Broadway, 113 East Broadway Ave. The staff met and decided they wanted to keep working together, Heather said.

“We’re sticking together. Like we all said, we’re family.”

In addition to Kereffky, the salon staff includes Cathy Seibel (with 38 years’ experience in the business), Keli Howard (27 years), and Chelsea Miller and Jayci Wahl, who have each worked at the salon four months.

The fire started at Chico’s Pizza, destroying that Moses Lake landmark as well as Salon Envy. The salon had closed at 5 p.m. that day, a typical Saturday, she said. The salon usually was closed Sunday and Monday. “One of my girls was going to go in Sunday and work, but that didn’t happen.”

Kerekffy said she was summoned back to the salon about 6:45 p.m. by a message from a friend on the Moses Lake Fire Department. But the time she and her husband Sean got there, it was too late to go into the building. “We stayed there until 3 a.m. watching it burn.” Heather said she couldn’t leave until the roof caved in, and she knew it was definitely gone.

The firefighters “did an amazing job,” she said, but in the end one of the fire crew told her the fire had spread to the back wall of the salon. “As soon as he said that, fire just shot out (the front),” due to the dyes and other compounds stored in the salon.

It’s still hard for her to believe. “I have to drive over there every day to make sure I’m not hallucinating and this really did happen.” Kerekffy owned the shop for five years, and had worked at the location for five years before she bought it. She has 20 years in the styling business.

She had insurance, Kerekffy said, and when she bought the policy it looked like a lot. But when she starts rebuilding it doesn’t look like nearly as much, she said.

The staff’s equipment was in the building – scissors, combs, hair dryers, curling irons, even towels, among many other things. “Your livelihood,” Heather said. All of it was lost in the fire.

“Nothing was salvageable. Everything was completely destroyed.” She had just purchased new sinks, had purchased new chairs earlier, part of a long term plan to upgrade the salon. “Here I am, doing it all over again.” One of her stylists lost items her father had made, and there were pictures of clients who have since passed away.

But she wants to rebuild, especially for the shop’s clients. “I don’t have clients. I have friends,” Heather said.

“Without clients you have nothing.” The clients helped pick out the decor in the old shop, and they’ve already been invited to vote on colors for the new shop.

“We are coming back. We are focusing forward.”

Other salons and barber shops in town have offered their support, letting Salon Envy stylists work in temporary quarters. The owner of Blades on Broadway offered temporary space for the whole staff. “We have an amazing community.” She sells beauty products from a company called Surface, and its owner is donating some items and giving her others at cost.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the salon, and the money, she said, will be used for things for customers. “We don’t even have a coffee pot right now.” The GoFundMe can be found at gofundme.com/save-salon-envy-ml.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.