An Oct. 29 fire in downtown Tamaqua put the brakes on business at Dn’A Bikes.

With substantial water and smoke damage, owner Rich Stianche wasn’t immediately sure what his next step would be. He’d either have to close the shop for good - or quickly find a spot to reopen.

Thanks to help from friends and the community, Dn’A Bikes will be operational again for a one-day, cash sale between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday from 308A W. Broad St. in Tamaqua.

It’s a time for folks to see what the shop will look like before it opens for regular business hours.

“I hope to have the shop fully operational in mid-December,” Stianche said.

He and his wife, Jen, were on their way to see a Hershey Bears game on the evening of Oct. 29, when they received an urgent call.

Fire had broken out at 117 W. Broad St. - right next door to Dn’A Bikes.

“At that time, it looked like it was two buildings away from us,” Stianche said.

They continued to travel, thinking there was nothing they could do.

But when an alarm went off on Stianche’s phone, he glanced to see that firefighters were inside his shop.

“I knew at that time we had to go back,” he said. “Then I knew I had to secure the building.”

What he’d see upon his return, he said, was a “full-on nightmare.”

“I picked up one of the bikes in the front of the shop in the display area the next day, and I bet a gallon of water came out of it,” he said.

Clothing, shoes, gloves, helmets - and just about everything else in the store was soaked. And if it wasn’t drenched with water, it had taken on the acrid smell of smoke or had been sprinkled with fallen pieces of ceiling tile.

For the next few days, Stianche continued to clean and recover merchandise. With extensive damage to the building he rents, he wasn’t sure if - and when - he could reopen. It crossed his mind that he might have to put an end to the full-service shop he established in 2012.

“If we weren’t open in two months, I was just going to sell off the inventory,” he said.

As he worked inside the soaked building, others pitched in - including Brett Hoch, who often rides bikes with Stianche. Hoch mentioned that he had storage space at his business, Ed’s Sports Shop, 308 W. Broad St.

The sporting goods store, established by Hoch’s stepfather, Ed Kennedy, had dialed back most of its in-person sales since the COVID-19 pandemic. And as a result, one side of business was no longer packed with items.

Stianche asked if he could rent it. It wasn’t too long before he received an answer.

“Our area needs your business. We’re going to make it work so you can rent this place,” Kennedy told Stianche. “So I have spent the last three weeks transforming this from a gun shop to a bicycle shop.”

He’s not exactly set up but plans to open Saturday for a sneak peek and cash-only sales.

Stianche hopes customers will give him feedback; advice that he’ll put to use when Dn’A Bikes opens for regular hours. With the larger space, he plans to add more running equipment and other items.

Ed’s Sports Shop will also soon resume in-store retail hours in the other half of the building.

Stianche said he’s grateful to so many.

“I want to commend all the volunteer firefighters that we had because if they didn’t act and do everything they did, we probably would have been looking at a total loss of all those buildings and all of our stuff,” he said.

The 3-alarm fire caused varying levels of damage to buildings between 109 and 125 W. Broad St.

“The support we received from our community - and I don’t just mean our customers - organizations and people who have never been in the story have all reached out and all offered us help to get us back up and running,” Stianche said.

He plans to announce regular hours on the store’s website at www.dnabikes.co and Facebook page.