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Twice Struck: Tornado-Damaged Bargainland Warehouse, Now Victim of Fire

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Feb. 13 PRNewswire — On Monday, February 11 - six days after being struck by a tornado - a fire at Bargainland's Memphis facility destroyed what was left of its warehouse. No injuries were sustained. The fire was a double blow to Bargainland, whose 200,000 square foot facility was being recovered after last week's tornados that ravaged the Southeastern states when the fire started.

The cause of the fire appears to be a rubber mat that accidentally became ignited as the recovery crew cleared rubble from the tornado.

"We have been incredibly fortunate, and consider it a blessing from God, to have not had a single injury or loss of life in either the tornado or the fire," said Paul St. James, co-founder and partner of Bargainland. "The support of our online customers and local business owners has been unbelievable."

The destroyed warehouse is one of three Bargainland facilities in the US, with other facilities in Utah and Mississippi. The company has been able to immediately locate a new warehouse and will be moving all operations to the new location today. Merchandise will be assessed and moved as soon as fire officials determine it is safe to clear the damaged warehouse.

Bargainland sells exclusively on Bidtopia, an online auction site. Internet operations suffered no outages and while distribution was temporarily disrupted, it is now fully operational. Suppliers of Bargainland should not be affected. Bargainland customers who have paid for items but have not received them can contact customer service via live chat at http://service.bargainland.net/ . Once the claim is verified, customers will be fully reimbursed.

Many Bargainland employees never missed a day and most warehouse employees have been working through the crisis. Some Bargainland warehouse teams will be called back to work in the immediate future, once the new facility is open and functional.

Customers and the local business community have offered donations to benefit the employees of the facility. A Memphis marketing and advertising firm, Chandler Ehrlich, has donated IT resources, allowing the customer service department to be back on line within 24 hours from the back-to-back disasters.

"We are humbled by and grateful for the outpouring of kindness and support from our friends, customers, and the Bidtopia community," added St. James.

The company has set up a temporary hotline for suppliers, employees and customers which is (901)881-3930.

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SOURCE Bargainland

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