MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. (WTVF) — Paris Spruill and her mom, Joann Draper, are overcoming a major setback after a late-night electrical fire at a Jackson vendor market damaged merchandise for their Mt. Juliet boutique.
Together, they run White Lily Boutique in Mt. Juliet.
Recently, they packed up almost all of their merchandise to bring to some vendor markets.
"We loaded up everything that we own to go to two spring markets," Spruill said.
Over the weekend, at a market in Jackson, a late-night electrical fire torched a booth right across the aisle from them.
"The distance in booths is about four and a half, five feet," said Joann Draper, owner of White Lily Boutique.
Draper said the plastic tarps she put over the clothes she sells looked like spider webs from the heat.
"Every business in there was affected because there was soot and smoke damage, absolutely everywhere," Draper said.
While the fire did not burn their clothes, what it left behind covered many of their handcrafted artisan pieces.
"This was a cream dress; it is no longer cream," Spruill said.
Now, they are in the process of cleaning and salvaging what they can.
"Everything's going to have to be either pressure-washed or dry-cleaned. There's some things that we're having to wash two or three times ourselves," Spruill said.
The plan is to sell items at or below cost to help keep the doors open.
"This is a literal fire sale," Spruill said.
The fire sale is set to start on April 1 after everything has been cleaned.
The two have been running the boutique for nine years.
"You pour your heart into a business, and to have the thought of it could be gone in a single moment is overwhelming," Spruill said.
While they have a long road ahead, they are determined to keep White Lily afloat together.
"I did have a little bit of a lapse, and oh man, this is it, and I'm like, no, no no no, it's not because we have a purpose here in Mt. Juliet," Draper said.
A GoFundMe has been started to help them recoup some of the costs lost over the weekend.
Spruill said their insurance had lapsed at the time of the fire, so it’s unlikely they’ll be getting any reimbursement.
This story was reported on-air by Robb Coles and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Coles verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.
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