Just down the road, Ezra Schneider has his cutting sheers out and is neatly trimming a dog. Both families - the Hales and Schneiders - couldn't have been happier for 2008 to end. With the calendars now ringing in a new year, the owners are eager for a new start. "There is light at the end of the tunnel," Hale said. Hale and his wife Judy own H&H Outfitters which just reopened in Warrenton last month. Meanwhile, Noah's Bark was back in business Oct. 1. Both businesses lost everything when the building they rented and which housed both of them along the South Service Road in Warrenton went up in flames Aug. 20. The rubble from the destruction made finding anything salvable virtually impossible. The blaze was reported at 8:43 p.m. and took several hours for firefighters to control. Hale said the fire began in the building next door, an unoccupied space, and is believed to have been electrical. "Right now, I'm very lucky," he said. Noah's Bark co-owner Delaney Schneider, added: "The firefighters were unbelievable. The community has been absolutely wonderful." Both owners are glad to be back on their feet and doing what they know best. Noah's Bark offers full grooming services for dogs. H&H Outfitters trades and sells guns and knives and also sells other merchandise. Hale said it's the camaraderie with friends and other visitors that he relishes the most each morning when he arrives. "This is what I love doing," he said. "I love being here; I love all the people coming in. I wanted that country store feel again and we got it back. I kept on telling people that it's not those four walls. It's everyone that comes in and that coffee machine." It didn't take long for both businesses to find a new location. Noah's Bark was back in business six weeks after the fire. In fact Schneider's husband called her two days following the incident to say he had found a new home. Noah's Bark is now housed at a small strip mall in Truesdale along Highway M. Insurance covered most of the remodeling expenses, but new equipment used to bathe dogs and for other services was needed and had to come out of the Schneiders' own pocket. Fortunately for both businesses, a benefit held at the Warrenton American Legion Hall helped offset some of the extra expenses. "Our customers have been absolutely awesome," Delaney Schneider said. "We had a lot of customers wait for us to reopen. It took a lot of 12-hour days to get (the remodeling) done. It took some time, but we put in everything we could as quickly as we could." The wait to reopen was a bit longer for Hale though. In having to document his entire inventory lost in the fire, his family and friends spent the first two weeks following the fire going through the rubble and ashes. From there in a warehouse, all the recovered merchandise was identified and documented for insurance purposes. After getting his licenses and permits from the various agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Hale reopened Dec. 20, four months to the day of that devastating fire, along Main Street in Warrenton. "The waiting was the worst part," he said. "I kind of wanted to see Main Street get rejuvenated a little bit with actual retail shops. That is what is wrong with the country right now. We don't have that Main Street anymore." In the fire, Hale lost drawings his kids and others had done when they were younger. Also, some movie props could not be saved. But as he looked around the store one day with coffee cup in hand, everything felt so right. "It's just like a big family," Hale said.