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01/02/2017 11:00 PMFor one local family this holiday season, tragedy has piled upon tragedy, and the community has come together to do what it can to help.
Just after Thanksgiving, wife and mother Angelika Cote died of a sudden heart attack at just 38 years old. Her husband, Jim Cote, the manager of Cindy’s Wine & Spirits, was left grieving for his wife while also now responsible for raising their three children by himself—and without the health care coverage her job as a manager at Old Navy at Tanger Outlets had provided for them.
Concerned neighbors and friends quickly organized a Go Fund Me
page for the Cote family on Nov. 30, setting a $20,000 fundraising goal. The sponsor of the page, Katie Elizabeth, wrote that the funds raised would be used to help Jim Cote pay for family health care coverage, to finish renovation tasks already underway at their Old Saybrook home, and for holiday gifts for the children.
In just 20 days, the Go Fund Me
page had already raised $20,300 on behalf of the Cote Family. And that was before the fire that consumed Jim Cote’s livelihood.
On Dec. 15, within minutes of smoke being detected at 1:30 p.m., and the fire department called, a dryer fire at the Jet Launderette in Westbrook quickly engulfed the building at 755 Boston Post Road, closing the state road for hours as Westbrook Fire Department volunteers and mutual aid departments fought the blaze.
When it was all over, the fire’s damage—including a destroyed roof over the Jet Launderette and over Cindy’s Wine & Spirits—left two businesses out in the cold and closed during the busy holiday season.
George Pytlik, the building’s owner, said that it could be six months before the building can be rebuilt and the business spaces re-opened for use.
“The building is shot. This is a wipe-out,” said Pytlik, a Westbrook resident and Board of Finance member.
Pytlik said he has property/casualty insurance to cover the building loss and business interruption insurance to carry him for up to a year while the building is rebuilt, but he believes it unlikely that insurance alone will cover fully what he estimates as at least a $1 million loss.
The building originally was built by his father and uncle 52 years ago; Pytlik bought the building and Jet Launderette business from his mother in 1994, after his father passed away. In the past few years, he has replaced the windows and the roof, which makes the fire’s destruction even more painful.
As soon as the Dec. 15 fire was out, three generations of Pytliks converged on the building to help George Pytlik with recovery, removing water-logged debris, equipment, and working together to install blue tarps over the roof to prevent further damage to the building’s interior from rain or snow.
“Everything that can be preserved has been preserved,” said Pytlik.
The initial fire investigation by the fire marshal’s office pinpointed the fire’s origin as a large dryer at the Jet Launderette. A customer had placed a wet rubber-backed carpet in the dryer to dry. The carpet—and the dryer—caught fire and soon the building’s roof and interior were fully engaged.
Although the loss is painful for Pytlik, what truly saddens him is the loss the fire represents for his tenant, Cindy’s Wine & Spirits, and for Jim Cote, Cindy’s brother-in-law. To prepare for the busy holiday season, Cote had just stocked up to add more inventory. Now, thanks to rules of the state Department of Consumer Protection and Public Health Code rules, the fire in the building means he cannot sell any of it. All of the package store’s inventory will be taken by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection and destroyed.
Still uncertain at press time was whether Jim Cote and Cindy’s Wine & Spirits would relocate to a new space while the fire-damaged building is reconstructed.
Find the Cote Family fundraiser page at www.gofundme.com (search “Cote family”).