(Updated 4 p.m., June 6)
Arsonists torch Blackburn Hamlet dance studio
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

Dance Dynamics owner Melissa Marshall and friend Lisa Pearson have been working day and night to try and reopen the business after arsons set fire to the place on Friday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

Melissa Marshall can hardly believe her misfortune. Sometime on Friday night, someone broke into her Blackburn Hamlet dance studio and set fire to the place, completely destroying the interior.

Since then she's been working around the clock with the help of volunteers to try and reopen the business by next week.

The dance studio caters to mainly local kids between the ages of three and 18. Marshall doesn't make much money off the business and works at the local Tim Horton's to make ends meet.

Four days after the fire, she still can't believe someone would try to destroy her business.

"We have our year end recital in two weeks and then our summer camp starts the second week of July. For a lot of the kids, this is their second home. The studio has helped turned their lives around. Whoever did this has tried to take that away from them," says Marshall who is working on less than 16 hours sleep since Saturday.

Unfortunately, Marshall had no fire insurance and her landlord has been less than co-operative. In fact, he told Marshall that he had sold the place on Friday and therefore he's not responsible for any of the damage.

For now Marshall is doing everything she can to get the studio up and running as soon as possible. But once she's back in business she has a lot of questions she wants answers.

For instance, she assumed the fire detectors in the building were working. As it turns out they weren't. She would also like to know how the culprit or culprits got into her dance studio, because there were no signs of forced entry and the door was locked when the firemen arrived.

She had thought that the landlord changed the locks before she took possession of the studio two years ago. As she's now come to learn, the landlord simply gave her the same set of keys the former tenant was using which happened to be a pawn shop.

Another bizarre twist is that whoever started the fire, left a fire extinguisher behind.

"I'm not sure if they brought it here intending to use if things got out of hand or what," says Marshall.

Finding answers to Marshall's questions will be up to the Ottawa police arson squad which has launched a full investigation into incident. In the meantime, Marshall is relying on the goodwill of friends and even complete strangers to get back on her dancing feet.

She's put out an appeal through Innes Ward Coun. Rainer Bloess' office to anyone and everyone who might be able to donate their time or materials to help fix the place up. Monetary donations will also be accepted to help replace the dance floor. To lend a hand or to simply make a contribution, call Melissa Marshall at 834-4518.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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