North Houston Gallery Furniture Fire Video

4-alarm blaze strikes Gallery Furniture warehouse
No injuries as fire threatens Houston retail icon
By MIKE GLENN, DANE SCHILLER and DAVID KAPLAN
May 22, 2009, 7:22AM

As flames ripped through one of Houston’s most notable retail icons Thursday night, Gallery Furniture founder Jim McIngvale vowed to rebuild.

But McIngvale, who earned fame with his colorful commercials and self-imposed moniker of Mattress Mack, acknowledged “millions and millions” in dollars of merchandise had been damaged in his flagship store’s warehouse.
To his employees he promised, “We won’t quit.”
This morning he was at his other location at 2411 Post Oak Blvd., which opened earlier this year, preparing to start selling furniture again. True to form, shortly after dawn he was filming a commercial to remind customers of the new Galleria-area location.

McIngvale said it wasn't clear when he could get back into the original location, much less reopen it. In the meantime, he said the store is scouting locations for warehouse space to house several truckloads of furniture on its way.
A few firefighters remained this morning in case of flare-ups. They planned to continue pouring water until heavy equipment could be brought in to pull away the remains of the hulking warehouse and expose any leftover hot spots.
Gallery Furniture — one of Houston’s brightest success stories, known as the store where Mattress Mack will “save you money” — faced serious damage as the four-alarm fire ripped through its warehouse in the 6000 block of the North Freeway near Parker.
But fire crews successfully kept the blaze from spreading to the store’s 100,000-square-foot showroom — the area visited by the public — during a two and a half hour battle. Morning commuters on the freeway slowed to look at the warehouse wreckage.
McIngvale said it was premature to speculate about the fate of the main store’s contents.

“Realistically, we could have a lot of smoke damage,” he said, noting thousands of pieces of furniture must be assessed.
The store was still open to customers when the fire started at 8:40 p.m., but no one was injured.
McIngvale was at the store when the blaze ignited. After an employee alerted him of a possible fire, McIngvale looked at surveillance cameras monitoring the property. “I saw 10-foot flames and realized how serious it was,” he said.
Flames towered over the warehouse’s storage area when fire crews arrived and started dousing it with elevated water cannons.

But the contents of the furniture storage warehouse only increased the flames. “It’s good fuel – it’s basically a big wood fire,” said Houston Fire Department District Chief Tommy Dowdy.
As 150 firefighters worked to contain the blaze, Mayor Bill White showed up to lend his support.

What caused the blaze was not immediately known. One employee said the fire may have started near a generator in the warehouse, but that report has not been officially confirmed, Dowdy sai

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Northwest Houston community fights against installation of park fence

HOUSTON -- A local park is in the middle of a tug of war between neighbors in Northwest Houston and a school. Under a county program, neighbors raised thousands of dollars to make a park better, but Garden Oaks Elementary school wants to keep neighbors out during the day.

Like 200 other parks in Harris County, Garden Oaks is a SPARK park. The SPARK School Park Program is a non-profit organization that was developed in 1983 as a way to increase park space in Houston.

Most SPARK parks are fenced, but not this one. Neighbors, who put up $40,000 to pay for new playground equipment, say they've been able to use it whenever they wanted.

But now the principal of Garden Oaks Elementary wants to put up a fence. She says it's for security reasons and for the safety of the children. In fact, she says a fence was in the original plans.

"It's just disappointing. It's a fun park. It has lots of stuff for big kids and little kids, and it's a good place," said Abi Hoffman who lives in the area.

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Ike Baby Boom?

Doctors who work in Houston’s busiest maternity ward say they’re expecting an especially bustling June, leading some to conclude that Hurricane Ike was the perfect storm for making babies.
It’s been eight months since Ike knocked out the region’s electricity, leaving many with no television, Internet access or other distractions for days, if not weeks. Now there’s a curious bump in the number of women who are rounding out their third trimesters of pregnancy.

Several obstetrical practices associated with The Woman’s Hospital of Texas are extra-busy these days with prenatal care.
“I looked, somewhat in shock, at my little book of deliveries for June, and it’s 26,” said Dr. John Irwin, president of Obstetrical and Gynecological Associates.
He routinely delivers 15 to 20 babies a month and called the Ike boomlet “a real phenomenon.” His colleagues in the 35-physician practice have seen a similar increase in patients who probably conceived during the powerless days after Ike.
“There’s about a 25 percent increase in the number of deliveries coming up in mid-June to mid-July,” said Irwin, also chief of surgery service at Woman’s Hospital.

At a hospital that ranks in the top five for births statewide, that means at least 100 more bundles of joy this summer. “We are well-prepared for it,” said hospital CEO Linda Russell. “We have just opened up a new wing with 92 additional beds.”
The hospital usually delivers around 8,000 babies annually. In 2008, the facility clocked more than 9,000 births and expects to break that record this year. And because August, September and October traditionally have the most deliveries, the hospital will require additional staff for five months this year, Russell said.
Storms and blackouts are routinely remembered with baby bounties. But this time, with the recession creeping in, folks had multiple reasons to stop going out and start snuggling in.


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Houston car wash waxes religious

By JEMIMAH NOONOO Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
May 7, 2009, 6:37PM

Mayra Beltran Chronicle
SHARING FAITH: The Rev. Charles Cooper, second from right, of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, leads Dr. Gleem Car Wash employees in prayer at the end of Bible study at the car wash on May 1 .

The Rev. Charles Cooper is pacing deliberately.
“I’m in dialysis, I go three times a week,” he preaches, his cadenced voice rising gradually. “But that doesn’t stop me from serving God!”

Here, in the lobby of Dr. Gleem Car Wash and Lube Center, there are no pews, no choir, no ushers.
There are, however, about 20 folding chairs arranged in a circle. Listeners — mostly staff — hold coffee mugs in one hand and search for Bible verses with the other. And everyone seats themselves.

“We’re having church here,” Cooper continues, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt emblazoned with the Gleem logo. “The Spirit is where the Lord is.”
For the past four years, employees have held Bible study at its northwest location on Friday mornings. There are four locations throughout Houston.

The idea was born after weekly staff meetings began ending in fights and finger-pointing, said manager Herb Alcarez. Some of the staff members would leave mid-meeting, slamming doors behind them.
Alcarez and fellow manager Kevin Jenkins — whose father founded the business in 1967 — decided to offer Bible study at the meetings. The managers approached Cooper, a regular customer and pastor at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, to help. Pastor Alex Morrison, of Houston Christway Ministries, also helps lead the Bible study.
“I used to think ‘I got these car washes. God, I’ll call you when I need you,’ ” Jenkins said, about the decision to express faith more openly. “Now it is ‘God, this is your car wash, show me what to do.’ ”
Though the Bible study is open to everyone, mostly employees attend. Members of the group of about 20 attend different churches.

On a recent Friday, prayers are requested for family members: Pastor Cooper says his daughter is like “the prodigal son”; another participant asks for prayer about participating in a funeral.
The subjects are as varied as the recession (no one’s job is in jeopardy, thanks to God), the swine flu (God will protect employees) and the kinds of customers the group sees (you can’t take your Rolex watch to heaven).
“I’m grateful for my job, to be able to put food on the table for my family,” says Christino Jose Aguilar. “That’s the best feeling in the world.”

The 7 a.m. Bible study is not the only clue that this is a faith-based business.

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