A faulty point of sale (POS) system is the cause of the November fire that destroyed three businesses in the heart of Old Town, one of the business owner’s tells ALXnow.
No one was injured in the Nov. 17 blaze at 103. S. St. Asaph Street, but it shut down three local businesses — Friends to Lovers Bookstore, Madam Coco — Emporium and Everything Chocolate and the Little Birdies kids boutique.
The fire started at Madam Coco’s, according to owner Stacey Wharam and her brand specialist Meshelle Armstrong. They said that security video from the inside of the store showed the moment when the POS system exploded.
“It’s a freak accident from the POS machine,” Wharam said. “A lithium battery exploded.”
Wharam did not disclose the name of the POS company she contracts with, but said that the company sent an email two days before the blaze announcing a recall.
“Late Friday night prior to the fire, we got an email saying, ‘We found this problem,'” Wharam said. “It was a mass email that went out to all their customers, and they said they’re shipping a new one, and two days later it blew up. I mean, we have it on the ring camera. You can see it goes from perfectly fine to poof.”
The building at 103 S. St. Asaph Street has since been “condemned,” according to the GoFundMe for Little Birdies, which has raised more than $10,000.
Ebony Fleming, the city’s director of communications, said that the cause of the fire was deemed accidental and that there was no explosion.
“There was no explosion,” Fleming wrote ALXnow in an email. “The cause has been determined to be from a faulty component of an electronic sales system that was located within the business. It is officially classified as accidental.”
Damages are estimated at $400,000.
Wharam and her crew have spent the last two months renovating a new home for Madam Coco’s. Dubbed as The Parlor, the new chocolate/coffee shop and “libation lounge” will open by the end of this month. Inside the newly refurbished space are the large printed words of Edgar Allen Poe on the wall — “There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness.”
Friends to Lovers raised more than $46,000 in its GoFundMe and moved into a popup location down the street at 108 S. St. Asaph Street. The fire started just four days after the romance bookstore opened.
Wharam said it wasn’t “appropriate” for her to launch a GoFundMe, and hopes that customers will support her new effort at The Parlour.
“I didn’t think it was the right call for us,” Wharam said. “Our hope is that as we launch this next venture it will be supported here.”
