The Rabbit Hole Bookstore in Dayton remains closed following a Feb. 12 fire that triggered an emergency evacuation order from city officials.
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The order was issued after inspectors identified structural concerns in the parking garage located above the business.
The closure was originally expected to last only a few days for smoke and water damage cleanup.
However, city inspectors discovered structural issues.
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The fire happened on Feb. 12. While the fire itself was extinguished, it left the bookstore and a neighboring salon with potential smoke and water damage.
Vonalt, owner of the Rabbit Hole Bookstore, said she initially expected the cleanup to last up to one week.
“Just basically getting smoke out of the building. The city came and shut the building down,” Vonalt said.
The situation changed when city inspectors, called in by the fire department, discovered structural issues in the active parking garage located directly above the ground-floor businesses.
Steve Gondol, director of the Department of Planning, Neighborhoods & Development, said teams from building services, nuisance abatement, and housing inspection all participated in the review.
“The structure of the garage was what the biggest concern was and that’s still an active parking garage,” Gondol said.
He said the emergency vacate order was necessary to prevent a potentially dangerous situation.
He noted that the order ensures conditions do not deteriorate to the point of a structural failure.
“The last thing we’d want is for somebody to be injured or even worse, killed,” Gondol said.
Vonalt described the city’s actions as harmful to the local business climate.
She noted that her store had already faced challenges over the past year, including two separate incidents where her storefront windows were broken.
“It is really anti-business, anti-downtown,” Vonalt said. “And we bounced back from all of them, but this really did feel like we were getting kind of cut off at the knees here.”
The bookstore owner is currently working with city officials and has hired a private structural engineer to evaluate the building.
Vonalt said she now hopes the store can complete the necessary cleanup and reopen on March 20.
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