Nashville sorting charred pieces

LITTLE ROCK — After a busy morning at her salon, Asian Image Salon & Day Spa, Michelle Roberson had taken advantage of a late-afternoon lull Thursday to pay some bills online.

That’s when two firefighters rushed in, breaking the companionable silence she shared with an employee.

“Get out! Get out!” she said the men hollered. “There’s a fire in one of the buildings next to you!”

Roberson had just enough time to grab her purse and cell phone before the firefighters hurried her out the door.

“When we ran outside, we saw the flames above the first building,” she recalled Friday, less than 24 hours after a blaze consumed half a block of Nashville’s Main Street.

The fire, which started about 4:30 p.m., destroyed three shops and drew hundreds of worried onlookers downtown. At least 10 area fire departments sent trucks and tankers to the city of 5,000, which sits below the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains.

Police Chief Dale Pierce said it appears that the fire started at the north end of the row of buildings, which dated back to the early 1900s.

After consuming a storefront used only for storage, the blaze moved on to Humble Mercantile, Old Stuff Antiques and Asian Image Salon & Day Spa. There was still some confusion Friday over the names of the shops and whether all of them were actually in business.

Police and fire officials have requested that the Arkansas State Police take a look at the rubble and help them determine what started the fire, Pierce said.

“We have no earthly idea what caused it. We just had a big, hot fire. There’s nothing to indicate [arson], but it’s not our expertise at all.”

Two arson investigators are heading to Nashville, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said Friday. They’ll meet with local law enforcement and then conduct their own investigation, he said.

Roberson’s building was 3,000 square feet, she said. Asian Image Salon & Day Spa housed not only salon services but also an Asian grocery, keepsakes from Japan and a Christian bookstore.

Photos from before the fire show walls lined with ornate kimonos, bright green shelves neatly stocked with groceries and an array of salon equipment.

Roberson has owned the shop for 10 years. The fire, she said, has demolished not only her livelihood but also the joy she found in doing something she loved.

After she was evacuated from the building, Roberson stood across the street, begging firefighters to let her go inside to get a few more things. They refused.

At 4:30 p.m. her phone rang. It was her husband, Waylon, who was about to leave work.

“What are you doing?” she recalled him asking.

“Watching the building catch on fire,” Roberson replied.

“Your building?” she said her husband asked incredulously.

Roberson broke down. Then Waylon raced over to Main Street, where he stood by her side, watching the flames take down one building after another.

By that evening, Roberson had received 157 calls and messages on her cell phone, she said, adding that many came from loyal customerswho couldn’t believe the shop was gone.

Neither can she.

“We cannot bring back yesterday,” she said Friday. “I was mourning, and my husband said, ‘It doesn’t matter what we say or do, we can’t get the building back. We just pick up and go on.’

“At least I have him,” Roberson added with a laugh. “He’s got my heart. So yeah, I’m mourning, I’m hurt, but I’ll shake it off and I’ll go on. I’m not done.”