The Bookmiser bookstore in East Cobb is one of several businesses in a small retail center that is closed temporarily after a fire broke out there on Sunday
Bookmiser owner Annell Gerson sent out a message Monday morning that her business would be closed “until further notice” to in-store customers due to smoke damage.
Her space is at the Village East strip center at 3822 Roswell Road, at the intersection of Robinson Road East.
She said the fire broke out at the Owl computer repair store next door, and “generated a tremendous amount of smoke which permeated every small business in the center causing extensive smoke and soot damage.”
Other businesses there include the 348 Studio fitness center, a Chopstix Chinese restaurant, an upholstery store, a wax studio and nail salon.
Lt. Stephen Bennett of Cobb Fire and Emergency Services told East Cobb News that fire started in the workshop for the telephone repair business at Owl Repairs and the cause is still under investigation.
Gerson said the fire broke out Sunday morning, when all the businesses were closed.
“The fire was confined to the room of origin and smoke damage was confined to the phone repair business,” Bennett said. “There was a strong odor-of-smoke in the suites connected to the fire suite.”
On its Facebook page, Owl Repairs showed a video with firefighters on the scene (screengrab above), and said the fire was electrical in nature. “Then the variety of electronics caused the store to go up in endless flames.”
A narrator on the video added that “this place is burned down. . . . We could use all the community support as we attempt to recover.”
Owl Repairs urged its customers to to shop at its other location on Bells Ferry Road.
“Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, we are also devastated,” the message said.
Gerson said her Bookmiser inventory includes more than 35,000 books, and that “although we have begun steps to improve air quality and clean up, much more work remains to be done.”
She encouraged her customers to shop online, via its Bookshop.org and Libro.fm partners. Bookmiser book club events that are held at Bookmiser will temporarily be meeting at Stitches, a quilting store behind Village East.
“In most cases, book clubs will meet there or at another location which will be communicated to book club members by Annell,” the Bookmiser message stated.
Gerson opened Bookmiser in 1998 in space on Sandy Plains Road near Woodstock Road, then opened at second location in East Cobb at the present location on Roswell Road. The original location closed in 2018.
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