Fire leaves dedicated candle makers close to wick's end

They'd hand-poured hundreds of sweet-smelling beeswax candles for the holidays in recent weeks. These new creations were designed with romantic Valentine's Day celebrations in mind.


		Mike Urban / P-I
	Candle makers Robert Daniels, right, and Sean Barlow sort out candles contaminated with soot after a Dec. 30 fire at the Big Dipper Wax Works. Employees have been melting candles and straining the wax to use over. The owner of the business, Brent Roose, is hoping to find a new place to set his shop up again.

Flower Grosskopf, 31, the operations manager for the small candle company in South Park, remembered joking: "Look at all the love we made. Think about all the babies who are going to be made by our candles."

But as can happen with love itself, the candle business has gone up in flames and turned to ashes.

That Friday night, the candle makers went out to celebrate at a tavern after work. At some point after that, fire officials said, the fire was started by an unattended hot plate used to heat melted wax and essential oils, although the business owners maintain this has not been proven.

The entire building sustained fire, smoke or water damage, and Seattle fire officials estimated overall damage at $200,000.

The other day, Grosskopf and business owner Brent Roose were still deciding how to get the company up and running again. Under the curled, charred tiles on the ceiling were dozens of heart-shaped candles, partially melted and covered with soot. Stacked nearby were ash-covered bricks of beeswax.

Roose, 39, has been making candles for 13 years. He'd been working as a bartender at T.S. McHugh's Irish Pub & Restaurant when a moment changed his life. He ran into a beeswax candle maker at the Fremont Fair. "He talked about all his different molds and designs so passionately," Roose said. "I decided I wanted to try it."

He started making candles in his basement and selling them to small stores such as The Herbalist in Ravenna.

One time Roose decided to try making the candles in a natural setting: out in the woods over an open fire. He looked up at the stars in the clear sky and thought, "Big Dipper. Dipping Candles. Big Dipper Wax Works."

"Hippie!" Grosskopf said, overhearing the story.

She'd been a bartender, too, when she first went to work at the candle factory and still mixes drinks part time at Smarty Pants in Georgetown. "It's perfect for me because you deal with orders and couriers. I have a lot of energy, and I'd drive people crazy if I didn't use it up."

Candle orders had been increasing in recent months, and the company had started selling candles to larger stores, such as Whole Foods and the Madison Market. "We've been working 60 hours a week for years, and things were starting to pick up," Roose said.

He says he knows it was stupid, but as they raced to keep up with the demand, he bought more and more supplies and equipment but never got around to updating his insurance policy.

Then came the fire.

The damaged production room smelled sweet from the oils used to scent aromatherapy candles.

"The firefighters said it was the best-smelling fire they'd every smelled," Roose said.

The stacks of beeswax bricks that survived the fire had soot melted into them. "We're trying an experiment out," Roose said. In the next room of the house, undamaged by the fire, Grosskopf was pouring melted, soot-covered wax through a T-shirt into a kettle. After a couple of times through the shirt, the wax in the kettle was clear.

"It reminded him of the unrefined beeswax he used when candle making was still a hobby," she said. "He used a T-shirt then to filter out the dead bees and honey."

They're looking for a temporary location for the business. Big Dipper's insurance policy was updated and current, but the coverage amount was insufficient to cover the company's increased inventory because of recent growth. Roose also isn't sure how long it will be before they can start making heart-shaped candles again. They won't be back up to speed for weeks.

They just know they'll be responsible for fewer romantic fires lit this Valentine's Day.

CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS

The original version of this story erred when it stated the business was in a commercial building, not a converted house. It also contained inaccuracies about the amount and extent of damage. The place where Roose worked as a bartender and the location of The Herbalist were misidentified. Also, sections of the story were rewritten to clarify details about Big Dipper's insurance coverage, the location of Roose's home, the business' plans and the owner's disputation of the cause of the fire.

More headlines and info from Georgetown/South Park.