A family lost all plumbing workand the community they serve from the devastating California wildfires.
Palisades Plumbing's building, trucks and most of its customers' homes are gone, but the owners have not lost their will to carry on. They are begging to convey their willingness to work to the surrounding communities.
“We just want business,” Palisades Plumbing co-owner Mandy Church told FOX Business. “My kids have to get paid. You know? We have to survive.”
After Mandy Church and her husband Ray Church moved to the United States in 1985, they struggled to make ends meet. They battled racism when Ray Church tried to get a job as a plumber. He eventually landed a job at Palisades Plumbing, a company they took over in 2007.
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It was a family business that soon became his second home. Ghey is not ready to lose it without a fight.
“I need exposure. I need people to know we're here and we need help,” said Mandy Church.
On Wednesday morning, Ray Church, his daughter Shavahn Ahmadi and Shavahn's husband Obai Ahmadi, who also works there, were the first to witness the devastation left by the Palisades Fire.
“We were very hopeful that the business would still be there…when we started walking and saw the trucks completely on fire. We were just devastated,” said Shavahn Ahmadi.
Shawahn Ahmadi explained that this is not just a place where she and her husband work. It was where his children grew up.
“We literally made our office a home. I had cribs in there. I had mats for the kids to lay on the chairs, toys, everything you could imagine for a child to be in the office.”
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Mandy Church and Shavahn Ahmadi aren't just worried about their livelihood. Their four hard-working employees are also at their wits' end.
“They have kids and families to take care of and we took care of them. We worked as a family,” Mandy Church said. “I cried them here. I feel terrible.”
He estimated that they could continue to pay them for about a month until the funds ran out.
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Mandy Church is particularly worried about some of her older workers, saying that when they have to start over, the new “plumbing company will send them all over the place. They'll work 12-hour days. My boys work from 8. to 4.”
Before the fires destroyed their building, Mandy Church explained that they usually served customers in the Palisades, though they reached out to other communities such as Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu.
Now they want to expand to Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Culver City, Santa Monica, Malibu, Westwood, Brentwood, all of the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks.
They plan to serve again when Palisades reopens.
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