OUT of despair and sadness at losing their business in a devastating fire just over two and a half months ago, Vicki Lowbridge and her "right hand" Lisa Etheridge are set to be like a phoenix and rise from the ashes.
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Lyrebird Dry Cleaners, a business of which they have both been longtime employees, was destroyed in an early morning Nowra CBD fire on January 28.
The pair have regrouped and are planning on opening a new business Shoalhaven Dry Cleaners.
The previous owner of Lyrebird has decided not to reopen, and with Nowra and the greater Shoalhaven looking like it would be without a dry cleaner, Vicki and Lisa have decided to launch their own business venture.
But it won't be in the Nowra CBD, they have secured a unit at South Nowra and are just awaiting final approvals from Shoalhaven City Council and hope to be opened by early April.
The new venture will be at unit 4, 173 Princes Highway, on the southern side of the new Bunnings complex.
At the moment they are carrying on best they can and are even using borrowed equipment to ensure they fulfil some of the larger clients' contracts, especially the Defence contract.
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"We are so lucky we have been able to maintain that Defence contract," Mrs Lowbridge said.
"Being able to continue with the Defence contract has been amazing. Honestly, if we didn't have that there's no way we could restart.
"We did lose a couple of wedding contracts but we hope when we are up and running fully again they might come back."
They have even been doing door-to-door service for some of their longtime regulars.
"It's just what you do in business," Mrs Lowbridge said, "you've got to look after your regulars."
She said it had been a long, slow process to get back up and running and dealing with insurance companies but it had been fantastic to have Lisa with her.
"She's invaluable - it will be girl power again," she said.
They have been able to salvage some items from the rubble, including items in the rear laundry section.
"We got about six dooners out of the laundry and saved about 80 per cent of Jaspers high-end wedding tablecloths," she said.
"Some of the fire suits from the HMAS Creswell fireground were also recovered, however, some did suffer damage, with the zippers melting.
"While we, unfortunately, lost a number of wedding dresses, we were lucky the day prior we changed our usual delivery day and returned a number of items to Defence - things like firesuits and Parachute Training suits."
Other good news was a number of items people had in for repairs or alterations at the shop were in fact saved because they had been taken home by the seamstress to complete at her private home.
However, the fire did destroy the computer system so they are left with an incomplete backup and don't have contacts for the owners.
"These would have been items that were put in on the last day of trading, which was Wednesday, January 27," Mrs Lowbridge said.
"We have no way of contacting individual customers but there are several dresses, skirts and pants that are safe and sound."
If you think you are one of those customers or know someone that could be, you can email your docket number and name and description of items to accounts@lyrebird.net.au or call 0474 494 873.
Mrs Lowbridge, who is vision impaired, having lost her sight suddenly three years ago, also lost all her Vision Australia equipment in the fire and is back making do with a magnifying glass around her neck.
As for the future of the building complex, which was home to Crack Fix mobile phone repairers, the Iron Anvil-Tattoo Shop and Nowra Kebabs, and two street-top residences, it is unclear.
It is understood the kebab shop could be reopening soon.
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