A two-alarm fire broke out at the Blue Iris Flowers shop in Catonsville early Monday — just over a week before Valentine's Day, one of the biggest sales periods of the year for florists.

The blaze was reported about 6 a.m. at the flower shop in the 800 block of Frederick Road, Baltimore County Fire Department Battalion Chief Blaine Kurrle said.

The fire took a few hours to extinguish, closing Frederick Road, downtown Catonsville's main thoroughfare, during the Monday morning commute. No injuries were reported.

The fire appeared to have started in the basement and burned its way to the upper levels through the walls and a rear staircase, Kurrle said. Nobody was in the building at the time of the fire. The cause is under investigation.

“Crews were able to contain the fire or knock the fire down in the basement, and then we got a handle on the fire traveling up through the walls, through the structure in the second and third floor,” Kurrle said.

He said the building's old-fashioned “balloon construction” design, which featured gaps between the interior and exterior walls, allowed the fire to spread quickly to the upper levels inside the walls.

The three-story building was built in 1900, according to state property tax records.

After the fire, a thick layer of shattered glass from the store's broken windows blanketed the sidewalk. Pink and blue paper hearts and “XOXO”s for Valentine's Day fluttered in the breeze in a front display case.

Allison Glascock, the owner of Blue Iris, peered around the shop with her mother when firefighters escorted her inside later Monday morning. They helped her bring out a computer and the cash register drawer, and she used the upper level of Atwater's Catonsville, a bakery and coffee shop next door, as a temporary operations center, she said.

Glascock bought and renovated Blue Iris in 2011.

She announced on the Blue Iris Flowers Facebook page that she plans to reopen in Catonsville.

“Good morning friends,” she wrote. “As some of you may know, the building our store is located in was involved in a fire early this morning. Thankfully no one was inside or injured. All of us are accounted for.”

In the afternoon, Glascock added an update, saying a GoFundMe page had been set up to help in rebuilding and support her employees while the business is closed. As of 6 p.m. Monday, it had raised $1,550 of a $10,000 goal.

“I live and breath this store,” she wrote before expressing her appreciation for Catonsville community.

She later said on Facebook that she found a temporary location at the former Riedels Florist in Arbutus. She hopes to be set up by Wednesday, she said, and will be fully operational for Valentine's Day.

Donna and Frank Napfel — who have owned the 5,130-square-foot building since 1989, according to state records — were in Naples, Fla., during the fire. Reached by phone Monday, Donna Napfel said they had been monitoring the situation but had not yet decided what to do next.

Firefighters did their best while fighting the blaze to minimize damage to the floor-level shop, Kurrle said. The upper levels, where ripped-open walls and ceilings could be seen through broken windows, appeared to have sustained more damage than the flower shop.

The top floors had been apartments, but they were vacant during the fire, Kurrle said. The second floor housed a private investigator's business until about nine months ago, said Michelle Dwyer, who said she worked there as a background researcher.

Dwyer, who now works at Candle Light Funeral Home about a mile away, said she used to come downstairs to talk with Glascock, who supplied the flowers for her April wedding.

“It was neat that there was a flower shop downstairs,” she said.

Craig Witzke, owner of Candle Light Funeral Home, said Blue Iris regularly supplies flowers for funerals and viewings there. He praised Glascock and said he is sure she will bounce back.

“I've known Allison since her first days there,” he said. “From the day I met her, I admired that she was a young woman taking on such a challenge.”

Omar Jennings, who owns Jennings Cafe across the street, said he awoke early to his phone buzzing with text after text. He ignored it, thinking it was just his friends, still reeling from the New England Patriots' Super Bowl comeback win in overtime the night before.

When he finally looked, it wasn't his friends; it was his sister. She had seen the fire on the news, but couldn't tell which building had burned. He reassured her it wasn't the cafe.

“If it was our place, I would've gotten a phone call,” he said.

Tom Quirk, a county councilman who represents Catonsville and has an office nearby, said he expects neighbors and the other businesses will step in to help Glascock in whatever way they can.

“It's really unfortunate,” he said. “She spent a lot of money investing and fixing up the place.”

Especially given the timing, just before Valentine's Day, he said, the support of the Catonsville Chamber of Commerce and other well-wishers will be crucial.

“Hopefully customers will flock to her store,” he said. “We're a small town, but we all rally together when something like this happens.”

cmcampbell@baltsun.com

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