They would have just recovered from Hurricane Helen. Then the fire came.

A restaurant server burned sage and wafted smoke, cleaning up the parking lot in St. Pete Beach’s Dolphin Village last week.

Rebecca Davidson, the manager of A Vape and THC Dispensary next door, saw the ritual, and she understood her desperate plea for divine intervention. Eight months ago, Hurricane Helen pushed a two-foot flood into a shopping complex, small businesses, shutting it down for several months.

After last week’s fire, the big chain will once again become a cemetery. A blackened tree. Exposed wire. Burnt paint. The drywall is hanging in pieces.

The place feels cursed, Davidson said.

The business at this strip mall near the stormy coastline of Pinellas was already staring at barrels from another hurricane season. Now, owners and workers wonder where the suffering will end.

In addition to CVS and Publix, Fire’s Wreckage includes AT&T Store, Swim City and Hungry Howie’s. Owners are trapped in a lesser-known pattern of temporarily closing, undergoing repairs and facing uncertain returns from workers and customers.

The cause of the fire? Still under investigation.

Firefighters fought the flames for hours on Tuesday afternoon, May 13th, as they destroyed the drugstore. By 10pm the fire had reignited and spread to Publix.

St. Pete Beach is still recovering from Hurricanes Helen and Milton. Large hotels such as Beachcomber, Bellwether and Poscard Inn remain closed. Further north, the 68-year-old Thunderbird Beach Resort on Treasure Island will be rebuilt.

Data earlier this year shows that nearly 800 St. Pete Beach residents have been told to rebuild their homes. More than 500 repair or construction permits are still in the pipeline.

The fire is another set-off, coming just before the start of the new hurricane season in June.

When asked by email, spokesmen for CVS and Publix did not say when the burnt beachside store would reopen. Employees will move to other stores, they said. The AT&T spokesman also does not provide details about the damage or fate of the store’s employees.

Surrounding the square’s chain are small businesses, including salons, ice cream shops, liquor stores and restaurants. They are open and unharmed, but the owners still fear that the aftermath of the fire could become their breakpoint.

“I don’t know how long I’ll survive,” said Katie Vu, operating manager at Noire The Nail Bar. “We live every day. We don’t know what tomorrow will be.”

The nail salon reopened in February after several months of waiting for permission and repairs. One contractor ingested $16,000 from the VU and did not install a new cabinet, she said.

Vu said sales have fallen by half compared to last year.

Vu borrowed money. She lost half of her employees. Adding salt to the wounds, the city told her to remove the sign attached to the facade of her shop, which announces they have reopened.

Mark Portugal, a spokesman for St. Pete Beach, said the code does not allow businesses to install “we are open” banners, except for special events and early openings. However, he said that authorities are considering changing the code, allowing businesses to install signs in emergencies.

“We need to be able to help us in the city and put up signs,” Vu said.

The story is the same at Italian restaurants Vape Dispensary and Buona Ristorante. Sales fell before the fire. Now pedestrians are slow to crawl as tourists are blocked by the burnt shells of a mandatory store across from the parking lot.

Davidson began using the burning CVS as a landmark when asking where customers could find their store.

“We don’t want that as our reputation,” she said.

The Verizon store in Iruka Village has returned for just two weeks before smoke from the flames rushed in. Repair company Celbro has installed a massive green air purifier and has managed to reopen the store. On Monday, a smoky stinkled in the air.

Visitors to nearby hotels have not returned, manager Chris McPherson said. The Verizon store looks at a fifth of the traffic it once went.

Alicia Graney, the managing server at Italian restaurants, saw a camera feed showing the fire path and reminisced the trauma that had occurred since last year’s storm.

“We can’t take a break,” she said. “It’s just catastrophic damage.”

Graney worries about employees in smaller operations such as Hungry Howie’s and Swim City. Neither business responded to requests for comment on the story.

Deborah Ritterson, a St. Pete Beach resident, was not sitting still when she learned of the fire. With the help of other companies and her local Facebook groups, she has raised over $4,000 for employees who are not currently working.

Five employees have requested assistance so far, she said.

“It could be one of us that will happen,” Ritterson said. “We hope your community supports you.”