Four-Alarm Fire Wipes Out McMahan’s

August 16, 2006  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on August 2006 A four-alarm fire wiped out an already struggling location of McMahan’s Furniture, a downtown Salem, OR furniture store last week. Investigators told reporters for kgw.com on Wednesday they will probably rule out arson as the cause.

McMahan’s was scheduled to go out of business later this year and was preparing a liquidation sale.

Such a sale will not be necessary now.

“Fires at furniture stores can be nasty,” Salem Fire Chief Mike Knode said to Dan DeCarbonel, a reporter for the Statesman Journal. “Furniture burns black smoke.”

The building was considered a total loss. The Marion County Assessor’s office pegged the value of the 36,876-foot building at $768,180. The building was not required to have a sprinkler system. Salem fire marshals recently had toured the building as part of a scheduled visit. Because the building is in danger of collapsing, demolition is scheduled for Monday.

McMahan’s is asking consumers who paid for furniture that was destroyed in the fire to contact its Albany store, said Jan Margosian, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Attorney General’s Office.

McMahan’s told the attorney general’s office they will attempt to locate replacement furniture, offer credit towards another selection or provide full refunds to customers, Margosian said.

The company has asked consumers to wait until Monday to contact the Albany store at (541) 928-3356.