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Crime & Safety

Fire Damaged Business Draws Community Support

The Ready Aim Fire gun club in Bristol was ravaged by fire Saturday.

Hours after a , located at 5800 Elwood Avenue, locals came out and rallied to support the Bristol business.

"The community has been overwhelming," Mark McDermott, a employee of Ready Aim Fire, said. "The amount of guys stopping by to check get me choked up."

After news of Saturday's fire spread through the community, members of the gun club, owned by Jim McGinty, came out Sunday to renew their memberships early and purchase products from the range’s gun shop.

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"A lot of these guys don’t need what their buying today. They’re doing it to support us," McDermott said.

Ready Aim Fire is housed in a large subdivided commercial building. It has several classrooms, a lounge, store, and gunsmith’s shop that were undamaged and all remain open, McDermott said.

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On the other hand, work to rebuild the fire damaged range is expected to take about a month, he said.

The fire started shortly after 3:30 p.m. in the 11 lane shooting range and was extinguished a short time later by firefighters from several Lower Bucks County communities. The blaze ravaged Ready Aim Fire’s 4,000-square-foot range, which is often used by federal and local authorities for weapons training.

"Those firefighters came in here as rounds (of ammunition) were going off and put out the flames," McDermott told Patch.

In the past, the fire department has used the building Ready Aim Fire is located in for training. McDermott said their knowledge of the structure’s layout most likely aided in their efforts to suppress the flames.

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