Deja Vu
A massive blaze Wednesday ravaged the strip mall where the bridal store stood at 95th and Cicero in Oak Lawn.
[...] About 80 to 100 firefighters battled the blaze, which burned for about an hour and spread to the Bedding Experts, Chiro-Med, Radio Shack and Miss Fantasia's Boutique. There were no injuries.
Isn't this like the third local bridal shop fire in the past 15 or 20 years? Is that sort of business run so close to the break-even point that it makes more sense to torch it when the bills pile up? Anyone from B&A have insight? It's just one of those things that sticks in your head after hearing about it a few times.
Labels: we got nothing
posted by SCC at 12:02 AM
28 Comments:
There are only 3 B&A guys left. One per watch. The rest are in the Areas. Watch out Chicago Fire 1871 it's time for a rematch.
Hey, just read Salon.com. There was a survey taken recently whereby 40% of the respondents stated that marriage is 'obsolete.' People spend a good deal on weddings, WHEN they get married.
There's nobody left at Bomb & Arson. With the current staffing there are many days where some watches don't have any Arson Detectives to send out. You can thank Shortshanks for the Brain Fart he had in sending almost half of the trained Arson Detectives to the Areas to work on anything but Arson Investigations. But according to Daley, there are no arsons in Chicago.
When I first read the breaking news about the fire, I knew what would be featured on the local news.
Crying woman on how the dresses of their dreams are gone and how the weddings are ruined. Plus some miracle stories on how a dress survived or a replacement was found in time for the big event.
The idiots at the local TV stations did not disappoint me.
You're kidding, right??? It's common knowledge that the bridal shops are used as ways to launder drug money. Notice how most bridal shops either deal in check or cash? No Visa or Master Card electronic transfers, just dough-rey-me. They would have have to open new churches to accomodate all the weddings needed to support the 14 or 15 bridal shops on 26th St. in the 010th District alone. The Latin Kings, 2-6 Boys and the Mexical Drug Cartels have been laundering "street cash" through bridal shops for years.
Not to mention the "photography" studio that burned down a few years ago. Wasn't the owner and his family another friend of the Daley Crime Family?
Viva Masters Masters Masters!
peggy sue got a new jocker and the ex burned the place down so she wouldn't have a wedding dress---- or it could be greek lightning....
I've been married. It isn't all that big a deal. More than half of those dresses will belong to a divorced woman soon anyway. Save the money, you will need it after the breakup.
Maybe these fires just get a lot of media attention because of the emotional factor that exists for so many families.
After all, these women are counting on these dresses to help make them look like the most desirable bride on the planet... at least for one day and to one sucker... uh, I mean one lucky guy (and every other guest in attendance).
It's got to be devastating to realize that all the planning and decision making and all the time that went into the fittings and all, were just wiped away in one fell swoop.
It must also be somewhat disconcerting to hear that the reason this fire was burning out of control is because the material used in these dresses and the accompanying trains & veils and such are incredibly FLAMMABLE, and being so, perhaps requiring a sprinkler system in these businesses would be in order.
These dress stores play on a woman. They talk them into buying a dress which usually costs over a grand, and its only worn once. Come on, how about a two hundred dollar dress?
I was happily married for 9 months,problem was that I was married for over 15 years.
My, My, such disparaging remarks about marriage. You would think that the comments were coming from unhapplily married folks?? Well, they call it " wedlock" for a reason. It is like a wrestling hold, you can't get out of it without pain!!!
David B. who owns this and other Bridal shops was investigated about 2 years ago for not paying taxes. He was found guilty and paid big bucks to IRS for not paying.
3 in 15 or 20 years ain't exactly a crimewave!
B&A is down to basic phone service. No Detectives to go out. Arson's r killed via phone call. 99.9% chance of getting away with Arson in Chicago!!!!! Vehicles, houses, businesses, u name it, want to get out of the debt or collect the insurance, "BURN IT" Daley allowed this to happen!
"Isn't this like the third local bridal shop fire in the past 15 or 20 years? Is that sort of business run so close to the break-even point that it makes more sense to torch it when the bills pile up?"
There is something very weird going on -- I make it out this way.
Some Third World sweatshop nation has taken it unto itself to begin manufacturing bridal gowns and ball gowns and shipping them here like crazy; the container ships are coming, it's like pressure in a pipe.
I didn't know that there was some sudden new huge demand, but I have seen at least a half-dozen of thses dress stores open in Chicago and environs, in the sort of old-line storefront that's almost obsolete becasue of the malls today.
It looks like a real cart-before-the-horse effort -- "we have these, therefore we must sell them." I predict that most of these little places will fail in a matter of months. There's a depression on, not a Grand Ball every night.
...and then I read a little farther...
"It's common knowledge that the bridal shops are used as ways to launder drug money. Notice how most bridal shops either deal in check or cash? No Visa or Master Card electronic transfers, just dough-rey-me. They would have have to open new churches to accomodate all the weddings needed to support the 14 or 15 bridal shops on 26th St. in the 010th District alone. The Latin Kings, 2-6 Boys and the Mexical Drug Cartels have been laundering "street cash" through bridal shops for years."
--11/19/2010 01:59:00 AM
Ah ha. In that case, these new stores may indicate gangs branching out into Elmwood Park, Belmont/Central area, etc. It's almost like the flood of low-cost merchandise is just window dressing to keep these places open.
A BIG fire in a mall, as was mentioned, looks more like "insurance lightning" -- it reflects what's really happening to this bridal business in the depression.
This reality makes the sudden proliferation of these small stores look very suspicious indeed...
SCC you took the words right out of my mouth/head! Inquiring minds want to know.
Anonymous said...
"...want to get out of the debt or collect the insurance, "BURN IT" Daley allowed this to happen!"
11/19/2010 01:02:00 PM
Of course he did. It's what the crime family does. Are you shocked?
Gene Roy could care less if the whole city burned down - it doesn't fit into his plan to make himself a big deal in "Homeland Security". That's why he let all the arson dicks go to the areas. Yawn, arsons are boring to him.
no idea about that but miss fantasias sold great sex toys and lingerie DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!
my dress was OK but my wife's dress was lost.
B&A, what a joke, get rid of all of em, as well as the useless Auto Theft Dicks, who NEVER catch ANY auto Thieves. what a JOKE this City is....
Not just B&A the whole d-unit is short citywide,try to get a dick to come out,they want you to bring the asswipes to the area to be interviewed what no gas for the cars? The other day called ad desk via pax,asked to talk to someone on zone 6 was told "Lets me talk to my supervisor we cannot do this"! Old girl came back to the phone and said we can do this just 1 time,I was working on pax and this bullshit,now they cannot give us directly to dispatchers great job idiots!
"There are only 3 B&A guys left. One per watch. The rest are in the Areas. Watch out Chicago Fire 1871 it's time for a rematch."
Wrong-ooo cider breath.
There are 16 field Arson Det's. Tho that is spread over 7 days and 3 watches.
Less furlo and CompTime
As for the Bridal shop burning out of control, you are probably right about the flammability of the gowns. And don't forget the mattress store. Mattresses are treated with a fire retardant. After a while that breaks down and up it goes. Tar roofs, too. Not the easiest to ignite. But once going can be tough to put out. Once going it can be tough to put out. And if there is no persons to rescue, the #1 priority is firefighter and public safety.
And even if the fire was set, what then? The insurance companies are some of the largest companies in the world. They didn't get that way by just answering the phone and putting a check in the mail.
On a multi-million dollar fire they will spend some tall coin to hire experts to examine the debris. And your books. Getting money out of them can be like getting blood out of a rock.
And a fire like the 1871 fire would not happen now. More construction is concrete, glass, brick and steel. And what is not must meet flammability standards. Not dry wood.
I wish this would have happened in 1985 would have saved me a ton!
'There's nobody left at Bomb & Arson. With the current staffing there are many days where some watches don't have any Arson Detectives to send out. You can thank Shortshanks for the Brain Fart he had in sending almost half of the trained Arson Detectives to the Areas to work on anything but Arson Investigations. But according to Daley, there are no arsons in Chicago.'
What actually happened was that when some of the Prima Donnas there got assigned to Area 2 over the summer, they rode that medical for the whole summer. Maybe some of the retired after taking the summer off, I don't know. But clearly, many of those Detectives in B & A didn't want to do anything else when told to do so.
Anonymous said...
Not just B&A the whole d-unit is short citywide,try to get a dick to come out,they want you to bring the asswipes to the area to be interviewed what no gas for the cars? The other day called ad desk via pax,asked to talk to someone on zone 6 was told "Lets me talk to my supervisor we cannot do this"! Old girl came back to the phone and said we can do this just 1 time,I was working on pax and this bullshit,now they cannot give us directly to dispatchers great job idiots!
11/19/2010 11:01:00 PM
___________________________
Supervisors told us to not transfer po's to the zones, that dispatchers are too busy to answer the phone and they can just use the radio.
Call the watch supervisor to complain... problem is some of them think they know police work better than you.
Remember when all the Polk Brothers stores were torched during the mid-nineteen seventies? Two along Central Avenue in Cragin and one on North Avenue in Melrose Park burned suspiciously. The schmucks would risk the life of firemen for a little insurance money. The "vowels" in Melrose Park got a hold of Morry Polk privately, and he then decided it was in his healths best intrest to rebuild out in Melrose Park.
"Is that sort of business run so close to the break-even point that it makes more sense to torch it when the bills pile up?"
I read an essay on the guy who was head of arson in NYC for 30+ years (1915-1950, roughly). A real legend. One thing he did was hang around the "garment district", catching all the industry gossip - so when a suspicious fire broke out, he'd generally know whether the business there was in trouble. Sometimes he'd even catch the spark in the act before the fire started.
Just a Civilian (who is fascinated by the idea of bridal stores as money laundries)
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