# Hobby Shop Burns Down



## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

In this day and age when hobby shops are closing their doors due to lack a business, one that had been open for only three years and doing quite well burned to the ground last night.

Nankin Hobby shop in Farmington Michigan along M-5 caught fire around midnight last night.

The shop, in what turned out to be in an ideal spot along M-5 always boasted a full parking lot, and a shop full of customers. In the evenings, people came to race their slot cars and on Saturdays, had a kids model club where members from my IPMS Livonia put on a place for kids to make models and taught them tools and techniques. This club had a regular attendance of about 15 to 20 kids (averaging a larger turnout than our regular club meetings).

Its too early to determine cause. I doubt that its anything suspicious as they were doing quite well business wise.

Hopefully they will rebuild, but the building itself is a loss.


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

Gee, that sucks. Especially in these times when so many brick-and-mortar hobby stores are going out of business. I do hope they were adequately insured.

Well, if the shop was doing well, at least we know the cause probably wasn't "Italian lightning."


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## jbrow1 (Aug 18, 2005)

That sucks to hear. Never been there, but if it was a busy place then it must've had nice employee's and that sucks to lose.


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## CaptFrank (Jan 29, 2005)

Isn't that just like _Life_.
Someone is doing well, and tragedy has to strike.


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## RedHeadKevin (May 1, 2009)

Good lord... Imagine the stink of burning plastic kits, solvents, paints, glues... shudder.


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

RedHeadKevin said:


> Good lord... Imagine the stink of burning plastic kits, solvents, paints, glues... shudder.


When styrene burns, it gives off thick, acrid black smoke. (As we probably know from staging "crash and burn" scenes with no-longer-wanted models in our younger days, right?) You don't want to breathe in that stuff.


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## razorwyre1 (Jan 28, 2004)

that sux big time... its been ages since ive shopped there (since it was located in the hardware store), but it was always a great place. 
id be very surprised if they didnt rebuild or reopen in a new location. 
just an fyi for those not from the area: nankin hardware and hobbies was a supermarket sized hardware store, part of the "do-it" association. the hobby shop part of the store took up about the rear 1/3 of the facility, until they decided to move the hobby shop to its own location. 
i get the impression that the hardware/hobby shop had been therefor decades, so i am fairly confident they will rise from the ashes. 
(its a good thing that it wasnt the hardware/hobby that went up.. a couple of years ago a nearby ace hardware burned flat, and took out entire little strip mall-ette with it!)


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## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

I hope they come out of it okay. I haven't been building for a good while now, but I've been to that store several times. It was a good shop. Maybe it'll end up better than before!


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

That's really sad, here in the Portland Ore area we had a real nice hobby shop Aero Hobbies but closed it's doors which is really bad because they had an outdoor track to race R/C cars which was a gathering place for these really great modelers, I think we need more places like these not less.:roll: Karl


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## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

kit-junkie said:


> I hope they come out of it okay. I haven't been building for a good while now, but I've been to that store several times. It was a good shop. Maybe it'll end up better than before!


Hey Kit,

Where have you been?

My IPMS Livonia had a meeting last night. One of our members is close to the owners.
Word is, the real structural damage was contained to the rear of the store.

Even though the inventory is badly smoke damaged, and thus a loss, the store fixtures all survived and they hope to be open again by middle of summer.


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## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

ClubTepes said:


> Hey Kit,
> 
> Where have you been?
> 
> ...


I've been busy with other things. I haven't built anything in what seems like an eternity. I've been getting the itch again, lately. Still can't seem to motivate, though...

Thanks for the info.


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