How Quick Response helped SPORTIME Schenectady recover from fire
Quick Response Restoration, a disaster cleanup company located in Saratoga County, N.Y., helped Sportime rebuild after a fire caused significant damage to the business.
The fire at SPORTIME Schenectady was worse that many people knew. The fire started after a bucket truck driving on the highway behind the building struck a wire, triggering an arc from a transformer that set off a fire inside the tennis club.
The fire burned so hot, metal beams above the lobby melted and twisted. Smoke ruined the insulation on the roof structure covering the main tennis courts and water from the fire houses damaged the playing surface.
Quick Response arrived in less than 24 hours and helped Sportime create a recovery plan that allowed the club to partially serve members on outdoor courts and inside the tennis bubble, and open enough areas to allow Sportime summer camps to go on as planned.
Fabian Johnston, executive director of Quick Response, called Sportime creative in their efforts to keep the doors open. Sportime credited the speed and flexibility of Quick Response for their success.
Reconstruction is still underway, but Sportime just unveiled five new, dedicated pickleball courts that took over a section of tennis courts damaged by the fire. Quick Response is sponsoring a pickleball tournament that will take place on the new courts.
Quick Response was founded 30 years ago by Vince Lorenzo Sr., who had been in the home construction business. Vince Lorenzo Jr. is now CEO.
The company’s roots began with disaster mitigation in residential settings but has grown into a large operation that handles commercial disasters as well as national disasters. Quick Response sends crews to hurricane-damaged areas, though most of their jobs are within an hour and a half of Albany in the Greater Capital Region.
Quick Response has a fleet of 50 vehicles, including excavators and demo equipment. The number of employees range from 50 to 100 during the winter – frozen pipe season.
Quick Response specialize in large losses, particularly in schools and hospitals, but half of their business is still residential.
“Even if it is a small kitchen fire, the job is just as important to us as a multi-million dollar property,” Johnston said. “We try to make every customer feel like they are our only customer.”
