Community rallies around fire victim

Within 24 hours of seeing their 5,000-square-foot workshop ravaged by flames, the Alley family of south Gardnerville had dozens of friends and family members helping them through a difficult time

"I was just broken-hearted. My husband is a mechanic, so I know how much equipment can cost. It's irreplaceable," said Sharon Hielscher, a hair stylist at Velvet Touch Salon in Gardnerville which is hosting a fundraiser for the family May 15-16.

"The family is just wonderful. They're wonderful people, and they need help. Even if it's just daily bills or food, anything to help them get through."

Located in the Stratton Center at 1532 Highway 395, Velvet Touch Salon will be hosting a hair-a-thon 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 15 and 16.

Cost will be $10 for adults and $5 for children, and all money raised will benefit the Alley family. Hielscher said they're also scheduling a wash-a-thon fundraiser for the same two days.

The fire broke out Thursday afternoon in the structure located off Highway 88, near the intersection with Dressler Lane.

Standing between a historic barn and log house, the workshop housed equipment for the family's welding and repair business, A & B fabrication.

Owner Mike Alley estimated there was $200,000 worth of equipment inside, and the family is now in the process of figuring out what was insured.

"They're waiting for the claims adjuster to come to the building," Mike's mother Jeannette Alley said Friday. "My oldest son David came in from Sonora."

Alley wasn't yet sure if her daughter-in-law Nancy Alley had returned home from Oregon.

She said Nancy went to Portland right before the fire broke out to pick up their daughter Jessie Greer, who just returned from a year-long tour of duty in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.

"I talked to David this morning, and he said about six men were helping clean up," Jeannette Alley said. "Michael's pretty devastated. They're out there cleaning what they can outside the building before looking inside."

Alley said her son worked for Bing Construction for more than 20 years before starting the welding business.

"He knows a lot of people in the Valley," she said. "He used to run the asphalt plant there. He was the one who started in the morning filling up all the trucks."

Alley said Nancy is the daughter of late Valley ranchers Matt and Peggy Benson, who used to operate the Heritage Ranch in Gardnerville.

For more information about the fundraisers, call Velvet Touch Salon at 783-7613.

On Friday, East Fork Capt. Terry Taylor said a wood stove on the east side of the workshop was the origin of the fire, though the exact cause of ignition may be indeterminable due to water damage.

"The stove could have failed, the stove pipe could have failed," he said, "or the stove could have heated other things around it that ignited."