Stylists keep prom appointments despite having their building burn

Hope Mansell doesn't mind the drive from Lawrence County to get her hair styled at a salon in Ross.

"My stylist Melissa (Blair Browning) has been doing my hair for 14 years and always does a beautiful job," said Mansell, 47, of Ellwood City.

When a fire broke out on Friday afternoon in the commercial building that houses the salon, Mansell and other customers learned just how far the staff at Studio Raw on Babcock Boulevard is willing to go to take care of customers.

"We had a number of people in the salon waiting to have their hair done, including about four or five girls who were getting ready for the prom," said Rohn Neugebauer, one of the salon's owners.

"We didn't want to disappoint them, so as we were leaving the building we grabbed a (styling) chair and some other equipment so we could keep working outside," he said.

Dan Burda, another of the salon's owners, said getting all the clients done -- especially those preparing for the prom -- was important.

"It's a big event in their lives," he said. "There's no way we were going to turn them away because of a fire."

Attorney Michael Eisen, who has his bankruptcy law practice in the building at 3185 Babcock Blvd., said the willingness "to go above and beyond" that the salon operators exhibited extended to the emergency responders.

"I realized that everything in my office was probably destroyed," Eisen said. "But I asked one of the firefighters whether he thought there was a chance my law school diploma could be salvaged. Before I knew it, he was walking out of the building and handed it to me."

Ray Hillenbrand, chief of the Laurel Gardens Volunteer Fire Co., said firefighters had a tough time dealing with flames that traveled through the structure in "voids" created over the years during remodeling.

"We'd douse flames and move to another area, and then have to go back when it reignited," he said.

Jeff Gigler, chief of the Evergreen Volunteer Fire Co., said the building suffered "extensive fire, smoke and water damage."

Investigators from the Allegheny County Fire Marshal's Office responded to determine how the fire started.