Fire ravages daycare, The Fur Shack

What started as an exciting and rewarding June for Tricia Homan took a terrible turn on Sunday morning. 
 
Homan and Deb Newill opened The Fur Shack, a do-it-yourself pet wash, bakery and boutique,  on June 1 at 1900 E. Military Ave., Suite 218. That business and the Little Peas Academy daycare were destroyed by a fire in the Parkview Center. 
 
No injuries were reported. 
 
During an interview with Walnut Media on Sunday, Homan said she was still in shock. 
 
“At about 8:45 this morning I got a call that our shop was on fire,” she said. “The whole way here I was thinking, ‘Well, how bad can it really be?’ But then I came down the street and saw that the road was blocked off and that there were fire trucks from about seven other (communities) here. Then you see the flames and you realize that it is bad and it is gone.” 
 
Capt. Tom Christensen of the Fremont Fire Department said that the call came in about 8:35 a.m. 
 
“We had a crew that was actually out on a squad call and so we initially pulled up with one engine with two people,” he said. “The one section of the building was fully involved with flames coming out at that time. I started calling back off-duty personnel and we did an initial knockdown. So far we’ve leaned on our mutual aid partners, including Arlington, Hooper, North Bend, Fremont Rural, Cedar Bluffs and Valley. We also had the assistance of the Fremont Police Department to help us with traffic control and crowd control.” 
 
The Fremont Department of Utilities also arrived on the scene to shut off power and gas to the center.
 
“It probably took us well over an hour to get it under control somewhat,” Christensen said. “The fire has been mainly concentrated up in the attic area.”
 
The State Fire Marshal was on the scene investigating. Christensen said when firefighters arrived, the bulk of the fire was at the daycare. 
 
“I don’t know, though, exactly where it started  until we do a little bit more investigating,” he said. 
 
Christensen said several other businesses at the strip mall sustained some smoke damage. 
 
Duet Area Director of Dodge and Washington Counties Dawn Styskal started her job on June 1. The sister-in-law of Homan said two of Duet’s offices were also affected. 
 
“The place where the residential managers are, it probably is damaged,” she said. “The (firemen) didn’t tell us that, but they were pouring water strictly into our ceiling so I assume that there is some fire damage in there. But we also have a workshop where the people that we support do work and that probably has smoke damage. Now that is a different building structure, but we were told that it probably has smoke damage.” 
 
Styskal said the fire is the most recent in a string of misfortune for Duet, which offers a range of services to support, nurture and guide children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
 
“My managers were displaced by the flood because they had an office down in the south of Fremont,” she said. “Then the pandemic came and then they lost the area director who was before me (Kathy Soderberg, who died in July of 2020). There have just been a lot of different things that have happened to them.” 
 
Homan said she is grateful no human or pets were injured during the fire. 
 
“We’re just lucky no one was there and no one got injured,” she said. “Everyone is fine. We will rebuild and be back.”