KEY POINTS:
An Auckland woman who watched helplessly as her store burned to the ground has seen her business make a phoenix-like recovery just in time for Christmas.
Anne McNeil bought The Importer on Barrys Pt Rd in Takapuna, a homeware store that sells furniture and gifts from China, India and Indonesia and began trading there at the beginning of October.
The former real estate agent said the first few weeks in her new business were "fabulous" and sales were high. But disaster struck just one month in when a fire left her dreams in a pile of ashes.
"It must have been 5am when we got the call from our security company who said the shop alarm was going off," said Mrs McNeil. "As we were driving down the motorway fromOrewa we could see the smoke pouring out and my husband said, 'That's just where the shop is'.
"By the time we got there it was just a blazing inferno - there were fire engines everywhere, it was just hideous. And after owning it for just that month, you are standing there feeling totally helpless and thinking, 'Where do I go now?' "
Little was spared by the blaze and although firefighters did their best to save furniture in the basement, all was ruined by smoke damage.
"Even the lease for the building was terminated - it had to be in the case of fire," said Mrs McNeil.
Depressed, confused and constantly crying for a couple of days, Mrs McNeil set about finding a new site for her business, which proved more challenging than she had imagined.
"That was the hard part and I started to wonder if we'd ever get another place but we heard about this place ... in Link Drive," she said.
And less than two months after she watched her dream burn to the ground, Mrs McNeil's store, which has retained its name, reopened just in time for the rush of Christmas trading.
"We received a lot of support and emails from people wanting to know where we would open again, so that was great."
She says there won't be any sales in the near future but at least a couple of out-of-the-ashes parties are planned.
"If someone had said to us in seven weeks' time you'd be up and running again, I wouldn't have believed it."
