Customers, clothing reunited as the dust settles
When Nick Gonzalez heard that Paris Cleaners in Allston had shut down last month after it was damaged in a fire, he lost hope that he would ever see his coats, sweaters, and pants again.
But yesterday, he and his wardrobe were reunited. Gonzalez, 25, was one of about 10 former customers who retrieved their belongings as the company was evicted.
"I had to search a little bit," said Gonzalez, of Brookline, who made a point of regularly stopping by the Harvard Avenue dry cleaner, which was closed after the June 9 fire, to check on the status of the building.
His frequent visits paid off this week when he saw an eviction notice from Middlesex County Constable Fred W. MacDonald announcing that people could pick up their clothes yesterday morning.
Customers sorted through racks of clothes wrapped in soot-covered plastic bags. Gonzalez helped other patrons by climbing a ladder to lower clothing from the higher racks. He retrieved his $1,000 worth of clothing after a 15-minute search.
"Everything is covered" in soot, he said later, raising a blackened palm.
The cleaners was closed, with the customers' clothes inside, after a fire spread from the Grecian Yearning Diner. The Hanmaru Asian fusion restaurant was also damaged. Soon after, irked customers of the dry cleaners started posting notes on the window, asking how to contact owner Miguel A. Munoz and retrieve their clothes.
Catherine Harris wrote the first of four notes left at the cleaners this month. Yesterday she examined her suits and dresses and concluded that they would have to be dry-cleaned again.
"Naturally it smells," said Harris, who added that she had to buy new clothes to attend a funeral this week. "I'm just upset over the idea that I couldn't get my stuff."
MacDonald said the lawyer for the building's landlord asked him to take action against Munoz, who owes $25,000 in rent. He said that he has talked once with Munoz and that the owner knows about the eviction. Munoz could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The fire damage to all three businesses was more than $2.5 million, according to officials at the Boston Fire Department, who were unable to say how much of that amount was for Paris Cleaners alone, which had smoke and water damage and several broken windows. Yesterday there were holes in the smoke-stained ceilings and walls.
After the customers collected their clothes, eviction movers removed the rest of the clothes and furniture. The dry-cleaning equipment and racks, which were bolted to the floor and ceiling, will be taken by a junk-removal company, MacDonald said.
Some people found everything they were looking for, but Allston resident Ben Damsky was not one of them.
Damsky, 24, dropped his work clothes off at the cleaners a week before starting a new job at a law firm - and a week before the blaze. He got most of his clothes back yesterday but was still missing a shirt.
"I didn't want to buy them because, as fate would have it, I would get them back and spend $500 on duplicates," said Damsky, with his recently recovered wardrobe slung over his shoulder.
Jonnelle Marte can be reached at jmarte@globe.com.
