Vendors are joining together in Salisbury after a fire engulfed a flea market this past weekend.
It was the second time a fire had damaged the building in the last 14 years. Fire officials say nothing is stopping this from happening again, and they say buildings lack certain fire protections.
Sunday morning, one of the buildings at the Webb Road Flea Market off Interstate 85 was engulfed within 13 minutes of the first 911 call.
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"My stomach sunk and I said, 'Not again," Al Parker told Channel 9's Jonathan Lowe.
Parker has been a vendor at the flea market since 1994, selling officially licensed hats from all of the major sports leagues. He was here when a fire in 2010 destroyed the entire market.
"We lost everything in the first fire, and it actually burned up, there was nothing but ashes left," he said.
His wife, Nancy, was at his side during and after rebuilding.
"Little by little, we got it back and it felt exciting that we were starting all over," Nancy told Lowe.
But their store was in the building that burned, and Al said their loss was "substantial." He estimates they had about 1,200 hats on site.
"We've had not a whole lot of burning, but a lot of water damage," Al said.
Rumors are swirling about what caused it, but Chief Michael Zimmerman of the Bostian Heights Fire Department said it wasn't a space heater.
However, Zimmerman said, "If there had been a sprinkler system, it would have kept the fire in check."
He says the market was rebuilt in 2011 without sprinklers and fire wall protections.
"A county commissioner got involved with it and went to Raleigh and got all the building codes, the majority of the building codes waived," Zimmerman told Lowe.
The chief isn't commenting on why that is, but he did say that impacted vendors this time around. Some of them didn't have renters insurance.
"I would say the majority of them do not have, they never even thought about it, or it was too high," Zimmerman said.
The latter reason is why the Parkers didn't have insurance. But it was a risk they say they accepted. But other vendors also lost everything.
"They were crying, and we were crying with them because this is their livelihood, this is our part-time job, so our hearts went out to them," Nancy said.
Lowe spoke with the owners of the flea market and they admit the fire codes were waived after the 2010 fire. They say it was so the flea market could reopen as soon as possible. They say they're re-evaluating those protections.