Six years of hard work was undone in one terror-filled moment. Oscar Garza lost his McKinney barbershop, OG's Chop Shop, to a fire last Sunday.
McKINNEY — Six years of hard work was undone in one terror-filled moment. Oscar Garza lost his McKinney barbershop, OG's Chop Shop, to a fire last Sunday.
"It doesn't look nothing like what I pictured when I left," Garza said.
That's because when Garza last left his barbershop on Sunday, it was in one piece.
On Tuesday, it remained a waterlogged room filled with burned wires and wood. Garza came back for the first time to see it. He said he hadn't had the heart to stop and look sooner.
Rudy Gamez, a partner who helped start the shop, salvaged an old mirror from the debris.
"I've been with it since barber school…my teacher gave it to me," Gamez said.
Oscar Garza went broke trying to build up his business, only to see it damaged by fire on Sunday.
Gamez and Garza said it all happened very quickly after a tree had fell on a power line, sparking the fire that damaged the building.
While all of this was happening Garza was getting ready for a back-to-school event. He was collecting donations like binders, paper, backpacks, and notebooks to give to underprivileged kids.
"That whole back room was stacked up with just boxes full of donations," Garza said.
The fire claimed those things, too. But even on a day that Garza lost his shop, he did not lose his heart to help. That same Sunday, Garza and several other barbers gave haircuts for an entire day while his shop sat burned up and roped off.
"As we keep getting blessed, we're gonna keep blessing others with the skill that we have," he said.
Oscar Garza's story is proof that bad things can happen to good people. But good people also bounce back, and he already plans to build up his barbershop business in another part of McKinney.
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