Sherri Park Residents: $25,000 of Home Business Inventory at Risk

We interviewed residents who were displaced Thursday in a gas fire at Sherri Park Apartments.

Bob Markell runs a business selling designer hairpieces and wigs from his Sherri Park apartment.

At least, he did. Now he estimates that $25,000 of his inventory is inside his apartment, possibly damaged beyond repair from a gas fire that erupted in his building Thursday.

He lives in the opposite end of the building from where the fire burned for more than two hours yesterday, and worries that the smoke will have ruined the wigs he intended to sell.

“It would be a huge, huge hit on my business,” he said, adding that it would take four months to be up and running again.

Markell was one of nearly 200 people waiting to be escorted into their units to gather enough essentials to last two weeks while repairs are made to their apartments.

The residents gathered in the community room in the south building at Sherri Park, sharing coffee, snacks and stories with their neighbors while they waited to see the damage.

Lyndhurst Fire Chief Mike Carroll estimated that half a dozen units have significant fire damage, and some 20 others significant heat and smoke damage.

One unit — on the first floor, closest to where the gas line ruptured — cannot be entered at all because the ceiling is bowing.