NEW ORLEANS — Wicks NOLA owner Tiffany Brown spent years working to get her storefront, but it only took minutes for it to go up in flames.
On Sunday, April 3, she got a call from a neighbor who said there was a fire at her candle store on Magazine Street.
When she arrived, the white walls were covered in soot and the chandeliers were barely clinging to the ceiling.
“My heart sunk,” Brown said. “I couldn’t believe what had happened so fast, but I really was just so thankful that nobody got hurt. That none of the fire had spread to the other businesses because that would have been terrible. I would have felt awful.”
The official report from the New Orleans Fire Department hasn’t been released, but Brown thinks the cause of the fire was a piece of equipment she uses to make her candles that may have malfunctioned.
She said the one good thing that came out of this was that no one got hurt and that the fire was contained.
“It could have been worse,” Brown said. “I still have a home to go to every day. If all of this had been ashes I still have a family I still have a house to go to every day.”
This is the second setback brown has faced in the last 12 months.
Her first storefront was located in Kenner, but was destroyed during Hurricane Ida.
And while starting all over may be challenging, it’s a hurdle she has no doubt she can overcome.
Brown says it may take months to get back in business, but in the meantime, she plans to fulfill orders from inside her home.
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