Signs of a recent fire linger in the boarded windows and scorched walls of a scuba shop on Boylston Street. Alongside the damage, newly spray-painted artwork is visible on the storefront: the business’s logo set ablaze, a phoenix-like image staff and community members have embraced as a symbol of the shop’s ongoing recovery.
East Coast Divers , at 213 Boylston St., was the site of a three-alarm fire on May 28. The storefront, along with $300,000 of inventory, was destroyed, and apartments above the shop were damaged.
The business is still operating without a storefront, offering classes, hosting dive trips and servicing equipment at alternate locations. In the aftermath of the fire, hundreds of community members have supported East Coast Divers through messages of support, donations and cleanup efforts.
“All of this freaking love just being absolutely thrust our direction is just, it’s insane,” said Nick Fazah, a managing partner of East Coast Divers.
Last week, volunteers sifted through debris outside the destroyed shop, working together to salvage usable equipment and load heavy gear into cars.
“As soon as I heard about the fire, I had to rush to help,” said Cole Fitzpatrick, a shop customer among the volunteers who cited the owners’ kindness as his reason to give back to the shop.
The cleanup was just one example of community support following the blaze. Within days of the fire, almost 300 members had joined a volunteer recovery WhatsApp group, and since the Monday after the fire, volunteers have been coming out daily to help.
“It’s basically like, ‘How can I help? Can I store things for you? I’m available on Wednesday. Can I come do something?’ – all stuff like that,” said Erik Dasque, a Brookline resident and customer of the shop for 25 years.
Additional community projects and fundraisers, including a merchandise store , a tattoo pop-up and other local efforts, have been organized for or in collaboration with the shop owners, and more than $80,000 has been raised through a GoFundMe started by a local diving organization.
“Every single dive shop owner in the area, or one of their employees, reached out, offering both condolences and support,” Fazah said. “The community response has just been unreal.”
Investigators believe the fire began accidentally in a back room of the shop, a section used for filling scuba tanks, said Jake Wark, public information officer for the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services.
Fazah said the initial reaction to the fire was shock, quickly followed by emergency management.
The response was mirrored in customers. “It was shock, disbelief,” Dasque said. “To think that it got reduced to ashes in a matter of half an hour is devastating for everybody. For the community, for the shop owners and for Brookline in many ways.”
A staple of both Brookline and the local scuba diving scene, East Coast Divers opened in 1974 under original owner Paul Adler. The business offers scuba diving instruction and classes, hosts dives in Rockport, Gloucester and other local destinations, and runs expeditions to international locations like South America and Micronesia. It also sells, rents and services equipment out of its Brookline shop.
Fazah and co-managing partner Alex Dulavitz, longtime friends who met as college roommates, began working at the shop in 2004. They took over the business in 2012 and bought the shop in 2015.
In addition to recreational scuba diving, East Coast Divers is affiliated with the Tactical Reintegration Project, a nonprofit organization supporting service members and veterans transitioning to civilian life. East Coast Divers assists with scuba diving and aquatic therapy programs.
Michael Burke, a veteran who participated in the program, said East Coast Divers became a source of support after he left the military.
“They’ve been there for me ever since, and so now I want to be able to give that back,” Burke said.
He added that he found a meaningful community at the shop. “You make memories with different people and meet people through all the classes,” he said. “One person that might have been a random person the day before turns out to be a best friend, and now you’re diving with them and traveling with them. That’s irreplaceable.”
The outpouring of support has given the East Coast Divers’ team confidence to remain operating and begin planning for the business’s future.
East Coast Divers is still offering classes and instruction, servicing equipment and hosting dive trips, including a visit to the Philippines at the end of July. “We’re not stopping. We’re still in business,” Fazah said. “We just don’t have a storefront. Everything else we can do.”
The business’s present goal is to survive, Fazah said, and its next step is to find a new space to operate out of. Fazah is looking for a spot in Waltham, and is currently unsure if the relocation will be temporary or permanent, he said.
“We’re going to figure out where we’re going to pop up next, but we’ll figure it out,” he said. “We’ll just keep supporting our divers, we’ll rebuild, and we’ll come back better.”
For many customers, that response reflects the community-driven culture East Coast Divers has built over the years.
Dasque recalled a time when he borrowed an expensive dive computer for a personal vacation. When Dasque returned the equipment, Fazah didn’t accept any payment for its use. The experience touched Dasque and revealed the owners’ care for their customers, he said.
“They always understood that if you treat your community well, your community will treat you well,” Dasque said. “And I think that when you see that there’s like 300 people that line up to help, you know that’s true.”
