Madelia finds a path out of the fire

In the days after the fire, all you could see here were smoldering ruins — wreckage from the blaze that devastated downtown and seared the lives of many families.

That was early February. Today, construction equipment dots the once-wrecked blocks. Businesses are reopening and new buildings are going up as the southwest Minnesota town works to rebuild.

Tressa Veona Salon reopened two weeks ago, the first to open the doors again in a permanent location. It's relocated next to the gaping hole where five buildings used to stand in Madelia's retail district.

"Our supporters came back, really quickly," salon owner Summer De La Cruz said as she finished trimming a customer's hair. "Everyone's needing their hair done. Some people have waited the entire time we've been off. It feels good to be back working again behind the chair."

It's been a long, emotional, journey to get to the point where she could restart her business. A newspaper photo showed her dabbing away tears during a well-attended public meeting in Madelia with Gov. Mark Dayton a few days after the fire.

Madelia's received more than $400,000 in donations to help get burned out businesses back on their feet. Five new side-by-side buildings will be going up.

Most of the displaced businesses are planning to reopen in the new spaces and should be operating by the end of the year, said Tom Osborne, an accountant who helped start a group called Madelia Strong.

"It looks good, a lot better that it did three months ago" Osborne said of the view on Main Street just outside the Tressa Veona Salon.

Donated money is still coming and will help cover any financing shortfalls in reconstructing Main Street, said Tom Mccabe, who's been helping out at his son's downtown insurance office in space rented since the fire destroyed their building.

"The cost of rebuilding is just enormous," Mccabe said. "And so I just can't get over how the local areas have helped out Madelia on this."

Most of the assistance is to help businesses reopen. But the outpouring of help has also supported the emotional side of Madelia's recovery. The state Legislature is also looking at a Madelia aid package, but so far nothing has been finalized.

De La Cruz and her customers are happy her doors are open again, though she said the loss still hurts.

"You've lost something that kind of defined who you were at the time," De La Cruz added. "I was attached to my business, I had a lot personal things there. My grandmother's curling irons, things like that. That you don't get back."

But the business will survive, and grandmother Veona is still part of it.

"She was a hair stylist and I never got a chance to meet her. She died before I was born," De La Cruz said. "But we have a lot in common."