Atlanta

Business owners say they’re struggling after fire closes Cheshire Bridge Road

By Bryan Mims, WSB-TV
By Bryan Mims, WSB-TV

ATLANTA — After an overnight fire under the Cheshire Bridge Road’s bridge last week, business owners told Channel 2 Action News they were worried how it would impact their lives, and their community, in the weeks ahead.

The Georgia Department of Transportation said that section of the road, from Faulkner Road to Wellbourne, would be closed until further notice.

Now, Channel 2′s Bryan Mims is speaking with business owners who said they’re struggling while they wait for the road to reopen. It’s already been closed for a week.

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There are orange barricades on part of the road.

Flames broke out beneath the bridge on Dec. 20, next to the Cheshire Point Plaza. Officials have said the fire came from a homeless encampment, where several people were lighting a fire to keep warm while temperatures grew cold overnight.

The city closed the area while engineers checked the bridge’s structural integrity to see if it was safe to reopen.

A quarter mile away, another bridge had to be rebuilt after catching fire.

For Peter Gianokos, at Distinctive Appliances, it’s all a bad case of deja vu. He and his customers are forced to take detours to get to the store, or not come in at all.

“Certainly, certainly. Because people can’t navigate around. They don’t know which way to go. Frustration, you know, I’ll just make a call instead of coming in where I can actually show them products,” Gianokos told Channel 2 Action News.

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The last time a bridge was closed on Cheshire Bridge Road from a fire, it took more than a year and a half to reopen.

“Yeah, everyone around here, apartments, everyone’s just really at their wit’s end,” Gianokos said.

Next door at Sam’s Hair Salon, Sam Samroni figures he lost about half of his business during the last bridge closure.

Now, again, his business is struggling. Samroni said that during the holidays, the place is packed. But not this year.

“Very, very frustrating, especially for my new stylists who try to build [a] business. It’ll be very hard to build a business again,” Samroni said.

It’s unknown at this point if the bridge might have to be rebuilt. The Atlanta Department of Transportation will only say it’s closed until further notice.

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