WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — The nail polish display inside now only seems to present one option: black, as a fire ripped through the salon leaving owners with destruction and neighboring businesses like Las Delicias El Paraiso with a big cleanup after smoke filled the restaurant.
"I got a call that all the smoke just got in here and that we had to throw everything away, which is a lot of money thrown away also, so that's also a big loss right there," Alison Torres said.
Alison Torres' parents own the restaurant. Her father says more than $4,000 worth of fruit and ingredients the shop uses to make its signature smoothies had to be thrown away.
"We had to throw away cups, lids, all the fruit, candy, the milk — basically everything in the fridge, all the machine of ice — away. We had to clean the walls, the chairs, the trash cans."
Despite all the work and the loss of revenue from having to close in the middle of summer, workers here understand the owners of the nail salon have it a lot worse.
"They are losing a lot of business just like with the whole virus thing going around and their place burning down. They are losing a lot, and they're not gaining anything at this point right now."
The owners of the nail salon were not comfortable speaking with Newswatch 16 on camera, but they tell us they want customers to know they appreciate the support and want to be up and running as soon as possible.
"My whole family gets their nails done next store. We get our toes, our eyebrows, basically, like you know, and since they're shutting down, that's the only place I go to," said Torres.
The Wilkes-Barre fire chief says the cause of the fire is still under investigation but does not appear to be intentional at this time. Las Delicias El Paraiso plans to reopen Wednesday at noon once it is inspected.