Local Salon Owners Step Up To Help Fellow Salon Damaged In Massive Blaze
STOCKTON (CBS13) - When business got cut short for a family of salon workers, things didn't just slow down, they went up in flames. Teddy Southern and his wife Meryl own longtime Stockton salon Southern Exposure on the famed Miracle Mile. But Southern tells us when a furnace caught fire last week, the massive smoke and flames damaged just about everything they had.
"It's devastating," said Teddy. "We're a family. So it's tough on everybody. Tough on my staff, we're all just processing it."
"Just a few things that we were able to salvage but we basically had to start all over," said stylist Jacklyn Ramirez. "Just devastated, feels like we lost our home you know?"
But now they have a temporary new home. Dino Ballin and his wife Vicki Kirk own Pomp Salon in Lincoln Center. They're opening up their salon to more than a dozen of the displaced stylists so they can keep working.
"I mean we just had to. they're friends of ours. Even if they weren't friends of ours we would've extended the opportunity. Like I said, 2020 pulled a lot of us, pulled a lot of us business owners together," said Ballin.
"Their staff is so amazing. They've made us feel so comfortable and welcome. I'm just so glad to be here," said Meryl.
A community is showing its true beauty by saving a fellow salon.
"Something as bad as this happens, it's a small-town feeling and people pull together and it's just an incredible community. I love Stockton," said Teddy.
We haven't seen the last of Southern Exposure. The Southern's say they're already making plans to reopen.