On March 25 of last year, Pet World suffered from an accidental fire. While no human lives were lost and many animals were saved, not all of them were so lucky.

Owner Sherry Emerson says that part of the problem is that there were not automatic sprinklers in the store. Most state codes do not require automatic sprinklers in businesses, so it is hard to convince property owners to install them.

“…the fact that decades go by without incident merely reinforces the rationale behind not having sprinkler systems in place,” Emerson said. “It reminds me of a school bus with no seatbelts – which seems perfectly fine until it’s not – but yet they still have no seatbelts.”

Since the fire, Pet World’s staff has been bombarded with support and positivity throughout the community. After months of remodeling and utilizing a temporary location, the store will finally be welcoming customers for a grand reopening on January 23.

Pet World employees have been actively documenting the remodeling of the old location on their Facebook page, sharing floor plans and building updates with pet-lovers all over Lawrence. They are making changes in design and layout in order to prevent future incidents.

The fire damage was so extreme that if the business had been open at the time of the incident, customers would not have had time to make it out. New features are being added in the remodel in order to keep anything like this from happening again. Many losses during the fire were from the boarding room, so “every modern safety feature available” will be used to protect the boarded pets. Fast-acting fire alarms have also been installed with the remodel.
Employees have been doing as much as possible to fit in all the normal activities the store has to offer in their temporary location, but the process has been tough for everyone who has taken part in the 27-year-old business.

“During the demo stages – especially after they removed our signs – it was so difficult to see Pet World like this, many of us just stopped driving by,” the business said on their Facebook page.

The owners and staff of Pet World are dedicated to restoring the business to its former glory and making it safer for the animals and customers.

“Maybe we can’t prevent every fire and perhaps even the best new system won’t prevent the kind of electrical inferno we just had but Pet World is no ordinary business nor should we follow ordinary standards,” Emerson said. “We exceed industry standards in everything we do and fire prevention should be no different.