LYONS, Colo. — Small businesses in Lyons are still picking up the pieces after a fire tore through several stores on Main Street earlier this week.
Chain-link gates, plywood and yellow tape are what drivers see as soon as they drive into Main Street now. Even days later, the smell of the fire still hangs in the air.
A few doors down from the fire scene, a local realtor's office has been transformed into a charity art gallery.
"We called up any artists that we had that had any inventory left and said, Come here," explained Tamara Haddad, who helped set up the silent auction to benefit the artists impacted by the fire.
Inside the makeshift gallery, the smell of smoke leads people to the aptly named Stinky Art Gallery, which includes pieces of art pulled out of the ashes of the Bellwether by HJB Designs studio.
"At about 11 o'clock, I smelled a little faint smell of smoke," said Holly Beck, the owner of the studio who eventually found smoke in the basement and called 911. " I just ran around and made sure everyone was out of the building. I only had time to like go back in my shop, grab my computer and my purse. Within probably five minutes, there was smoke and fire and flames billowing out."
Her studio is a complete loss, along with everything inside including her work and pieces from 18 different local artists.
"I thought in my head that I would be able to go back later that day or the next day and get rid of some smoke smell and wipe a few things off, and it'd be OK. And that is not what happened," Beck said.
Instead, the surviving art is being sold to support the victims of the fire whose livelihood is now on the line.
One surviving piece of art is titled "War Pony."
"The glass is broken. It's ripped and distorted but you can still see it," Haddad said. "This embodies Lyons. We rise from the ashes. We rise with our community."
The auction runs through December 23 at 440 Main Street in Lyons during the hours of 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. One hundred percent of proceeds go to the local artists.
Meanwhile, financial and mental health resources are being made available through Lyon's Emergency Assistance Fund (LEAF). To donate to the cause, click here.
