Published Sunday, June 23, 2002
Herald Business Editor
At 9:35 a.m. Jan. 3, 2001, Brian White saw his life-long work go up in smoke.
With a college football game playing on TV in the background, White was talking with a customer at his Video Shelf video store. White owned the store on Liberty Street in Jamestown for 19 years and just three months earlier he bought the adjacent beer distributor, Carriage House Distributing.
As they watched the game the customer pointed to smoke billowing out of the ceiling. White's first impression was it was something minor, certainly not a raging fire.
But within 90 minutes the blaze consumed both of his businesses.
"By 11 o'clock when I saw the flames shooting out of the building I knew it was done for,'' White recalled.
With 13 area fire departments responding and with a loss pegged at more than $1 million, it was the biggest fire in recent Jamestown memory.
In all, 15,000 videos and hundreds of cases of beer were consumed by the fire.
"There was nothing left,'' White said. "No beer, no videos, no nothing. I never in a million years thought it would turn into what it did.''
Fire officials believe the blaze was started by an electrical snafu and had been simmering for more than an hour before it finally kicked into a roaring blaze.
Insurance covered rebuilding costs but the 39-year-old White and his wife, Brenda, had to dig into their own pockets to restock both businesses.
Undaunted, the couple rebuilt both businesses and reopened the beer distributor last Memorial Day and the video store followed about a month later on the Fourth of July.
Owning another video store in Andover, Ohio, White borrowed videos from that store to shore up the rebuilt store's library. He took out a loan to cover the cost of more videos and DVDs and upgrading the store's security system. White also added a drive-through at the beer distributor to give customers easier access.
White oversees the beer business while his wife managers the video store.
Now that both stores have been open nearly a year, White said customers have come back and are falling into their regular buying habits. In Jamestown he finds Budweiser, Coors Lite, Miller Lite are the favorites, with Pennsylvania's own Yuengling gaining in popularity.
White enjoys talking about a customer who calls him up a couple times a year for a special order -- a case of Samuel Adams Triple Boch. The heavy dark beer sells for an eye-popping $110 a case.
"If somebody wants it I'll get it for him,'' White said.
On this day an elderly couple pulls up in the middle of the drive-through. Without a word, White automatically picked up a case of Iron City Beer and plops it in the back seat of their car.
"You get to know people's tastes,'' White said as the couple pulls away.
Rain or shine, White said he wasn't worried about business.
"Beer is sunshine and videos are rain,'' White said. "I've got both bases covered now.''