Morning fire at Portsmouth strip mall damages six stores

I am sorry it took this long to post our contact information but the phone company and Cox is still dragging their feet, they promised to show up Friday but did not. :(

We have already contacted all of our current customers but we also wanted to make a public post to past customers or anyone else that may wish to contact Betterton Home Improvement.

Our phone number is still the same as it has been for 30 years.
757-483-1640

Betterton shall continue to honor any and all warranties from past work.

Thank you all for your concerns and prayers and if there is anything Betterton can do for you please.. just ask.

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Larry Betterton
President
Betterton Home Improvement
(757) 483-1640

Please post a contact number for where you've set up business until you're back in your location.

God bless you and your employees.

It really sucks that a lack of money has caused a lack of man power but based on the fact that the shopping center is a sneeze from Chesapeake they really should have been there to but the city of Portsmouth up.

My name is Larry Betterton, I am the owner of Betterton Home Improvement.

I would like to say thank you for trying to get help to those business owners who suffered such a terrible loss. I can only speak for Betterton Home Improvement so I must limit what I can say:

As far as Betterton goes, we are a family run business: my wife, daughter, son, brothers all work with me and and most have been with me for the past 30 years.

The fire that started next to our business office did in fact take the entire building along with our office and everything in it required to run a business, nothing is left but ashes and our faith in God.

I just wanted to let it be known that we do have all of our people working and that not one of our customers jobs were left unattended for a single day.

It will be a little while before our office can be rebuilt but in the mean time I still must keep everyone working.

We are not asking or expecting anyone to help us, We only want to work and take care of our customers first.

We are all happy that no one was injured, yet saddened by the fact that some of the companies (like us) were not insured.

It will be costly to rebuild our busines

Fire trucks going unmanned is a sign of the tight times. It does cost money to staff fire trucks and cities are looking for ways to cuts costs and still get by. Kinda like playing Russian Roulette, eventually is going to bite you. Firefighters are facing a double edged sword, they cost the city money when they are doing nothing, but when a fire does occur, they are invaluable and you wish more firefighters were on scene. This is just a service that just plain costs cities money, part of doing business.

When unbiased said one unit was out of service I believe he meant a firetruck or the station couldn't respond due to the lack of people.

To lose one's livlihood is bad enough, but right before Christmas!! I hope they are all insured and I hope their insurers are staffed and cranking during this time of year. Prayers are out there for all affected!

I am so sick of seeing and hearing stories about the Winter weather in places North of here. News flash: it's Winter and they are North of here. It's supposed to be cold!

Everyone is totally ignoring the strip mall fire. In case you didn't know, D&R Arms was a favorite of local law enforcement officers. Local police were in and out of that store all the time, ordering equipment for on and off duty. Local police officers being inconvenienced doesn't rate mention??? Five other businesses being destroyed doesn't rate a story update? The Taylor family owned three of those businesses (Taylor Bros., Hair Performance, and D&R Arms). One family under extreme financial hardship doesn't rate? Also, the Taylors owned the strip mall. Did they have enough insurance? Will we see our new businesses again?

Somehow I doubt it. It happened in Portsmouth.

Having seen first-hand the results of this devastating fire, the reporter should have chosen the word "destroyed" instead of "damaged" in assessing the fire's impact.

These business owners and their employees have lost their livelihoods at a time when the economny is in a recession. People need to be more compassionate of their needs and spend less time complaining about political situations in Portsmouth, situations that have been there some time and will continue to be there for some time without a change in thinking. (By the way, I used to work and live there, so I speak from personal experience.)

First, yes one of the businesses were closed due to lack of people. It was a travel agency and thanks to the fabulous economy and cites like expendia people don't use travel agents anymore. Second, what does the city's lack of funds have to do with this fire. Taylor Brothers owns the shopping center. Maybe you should blame the source of our money problems, the President, congress, and the war. Yes, Portsmouth may have it's shortfalls but so does every other city around. If you don't like how city council is running things then maybe you should run for office. Obviously you have a better plan.

What's wrong with you! People have lost their livelihood; what if it was you!

... if the intermittent power outages we had in the area had anything to do with it.

The city might not be so short if it didn't have to spend money defending law suits filed by disgruntled politicians.

One of the Churchland units was out of service due to a lack of people($$$)