Donate to Help Reopen Ohlin's Bakery in Belmont

Belmont, MA – A GoFundMe has been established to help Ohlin's Bakery cover the cost of reopening after an explosion in March severely damaged the building.

The explosion came in the early morning hours of March 15 as owner Paul Klemm and an employee were turning the oven on to start the day.

It knocked Klemm off of his feet and left his colleague uninjured. Klemm escaped with singed hair and eyebrows, and his employee later sought medical attention.

The blast knocked out the back wall of the bakery and damaged the window of a barbershop. Other surrounding stores sustained minor damage.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Klemm and his wife, Marybeth, said they intend to reopen, but their insurance will not cover the code upgrades necessary to operate a bakery in the building:

Dear Customers,
A lot of you have messaged us asking when we will be reopening, and for the longest time we really had no idea.
We have learned that the landlord will be rebuilding the damaged part of the building soon. Her insurance company will pay to make it into a retail store ----- not a bakery. A bakery has special requirements, and we would be responsible to make it into a bakery. The problem is a bakery would need different code up grades than just a retail store, such as... a certain kind of flooring, fire suppression system, walls, new sinks, electrical up grades, plumbing up grades, plans from architect, etc.
Our insurance company will pay for the things that were damaged during the explosion, like the oven for instance. Our biggest problem is our insurance will not cover any code upgrades that we need. We are trying to figure out how much all this will cost us. We will need to see if this is something we can personally afford. We are incredibly nervous and stressed about the unknown. It is difficult telling you all this information, as we wish it was all good news, but unfortunately this is what we are trying to deal with at this time. We were hoping the insurance would cover everything we needed, so that we could have confidently told you we would be opening soon.
Our family has been in the bakery business for 100 years and we would like to continue to bake again. We love baking and feel proud that we have won recognition as a bakery, and for our donuts! We want more than anything to get back to doing what we do best. We pray that this will be possible.
We miss all our customers and want to see you all again! We love that you miss us and send us messages every day! It truly makes us feel loved to hear your kind messages to us. We will keep you posted when we figure all this out.
Kind regards,
Paul & Marybeth Klemm

In response, Jacqueline Davis, who was identified as a former employee on the Ohlin's Facebook page, set up a GoFundMe to help the Klemms cover the cost of reopening.

>>>Click here to donate to Ohlin's Bakery.

Photo Credit: WHDH, 7-News