Two weeks after fire tore through their Eight Mile gas station, the smell of smoke still hung inside the gutted building. Glass had cracked from the heat, and water had seeped through holes punched into the walls and roof, leaving little of the store intact.
“I don’t know what we do now,” said owner Lilian Maatouk Faragalla. “I feel very bad and very sad.”
Faragalla and her husband, George, opened the shop 15 years ago and had built it into their family’s sole source of income. In the early morning hours of April 7, the couple learned their business had apparently been targeted in a burglary that ended in arson. Investigators with the Prichard Fire Department, working under Mayor Troy Ephriam’s administration, continued examining the scene in the days that followed.
According to the Faragallas, the break-in began late the night before. Store surveillance cameras captured a masked intruder forcing entry, stealing jewelry, cigarettes and cash, then attempting unsuccessfully to crack open a safe behind the counter. When that failed, the intruder appeared to douse scattered papers with an accelerant, set them ablaze and flee. Investigators had not said publicly how the attacker cut through the building’s cinder block walls and roof to get inside.
The fire consumed nearly everything in the store. George Faragalla pointed to bare spots where a computer, television and cash register once sat. Wiring beneath the counter used to run the station’s fuel pumps was charred beyond repair, leaving the pumps inoperable. The store has stayed closed ever since.
“It damaged everything,” George Faragalla said.
The family estimated total losses at roughly $200,000. They had no insurance on the business. With three children between the ages of 13 and 17 depending on the store’s income, the Faragallas said the loss threatened more than just a building.
“This is our only income,” Lilian Maatouk Faragalla said. “If you want to steal stuff, destroy stuff, fine. But why set it on fire?”
Over the weekend following the fire, the family launched a GoFundMe campaign seeking donations to help clean up the property and get the station running again. They also offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to whoever was responsible, asking anyone with tips to contact the Prichard Police Department.
The case remains a reminder of how quickly a small, family-run business in Eight Mile can be upended, and how thin the margin for recovery can be for owners operating without insurance. For now, the Faragallas are left waiting on investigators and hoping the community’s support can help them rebuild what took 15 years to build in the first place.