While the city of Baltimore recovers from the devastating riots and protestor confrontations with police Monday evening, the area’s contract glaziers and retailers have been busy helping rebuild some of the worst-hit spots.
Among the extensive damage—including a reported 144 vehicle fires and 15 structural fires Monday night (via the Baltimore Sun)—are the many Baltimore business storefronts that were smashed.
Beltsville, Md.-based S. Albert Glass Co. has very been busy this week with board-ups, glass replacements, repairs and everything in between.
“It’s very unfortunate that this situation happened to begin with,” says Michael Albert, president of S. Albert Glass. “So from our end, we’re really just trying to get everything back to normal for people as soon as possible.”
Albert says his company couldn’t get into the highly-damaged areas Monday night because of the chaos, but his team was at it all day Tuesday starting at 6:30 a.m. That afternoon, however, they were asked by police to leave around 3:30-4 p.m. because of what appeared to be increasing unrest among a growing crowd.
S. Albert Glass was back to work in the city early this morning, as Albert’s son, Steven, has been coordinating all of the work in the field. Michael Albert says Steven has been “pivotal” in making things run smoothly.
Albert says workers in the field have been taking measurements and emailing them back to customer service, where they’re then sent to the shop to be cut. The company is continuing to run the glass back to Baltimore as needed, and on jobs that required an order to be put in, S. Albert Glass has been installing with acrylic sheets in order to maintain window-like appearance and views until the glass is ready to be installed. Albert says his crew installed 50 sheets of acrylic at Mondawin Mall, where extensive damage was done.
Baltimore Glass has fielded at least a half dozen calls related to the riots as of this morning and had seen inquiries on a couple bigger shop jobs at that time.
Caleb Kelly, president of Baltimore Glass, says his company has been doing “everything that’s been available for us to do,” though some potential repair and replacement jobs are on hold until the owners get things worked out from an insurance standpoint.
Kelly says Baltimore Glass is as busy it has been since the early 2000s, so the surprise jobs that have come up due to recent events in the area have affected its schedule a bit. However, he says his company has pushed on with its current projects as effectively as it can.
John Winebrenner of R.G. Collins Glass Co. says the events hadn’t affected his company’s schedule but that they have gotten “a few” calls related to damage from the riots.
With the National Guard called to the city this week, the Baltimore Sun reports 1,700 soldiers and airmen were activated, with more than 400 state troopers and officers from surrounding counties deployed. Troopers were also called from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. The Sun also reports 235 arrests were made Monday.
Tuesday, a city-wide curfew of 10 p.m.-5 a.m. went into effect. According to the mayor’s office, it will be in place for a week.