Community Corner

No One Hurt When Car Slams Into Dog Grooming Salon

The building which includes four apartments was declared unsafe and the Red Cross is assisting residents find emergency shelter.


Updated: Oct. 30@ 5:00 p.m.
No one was injured when a late model Chevy Camaro apparently spun out of control and slammed into the Barks & Bubble Grooming Salon on Pemberwick Road on Wednesday afternoon.

Emergency officials at the scene said speed was a factor in the 2:46 p.m. crash which resulted in town building officials condemning the two-story brick structure at 60 Pemberwick Rd. and displacing nine tenants who lived in four apartments in the basement and second-floor.

Deputy Greenwich Fire Chief Thomas Zack said he was bringing in the Red Cross to help find housing for the tenants. About 4 p.m., town building inspector Bob Ingraham taped a 'dangerous and unsafe' notice to the front of the building.

Patricia Gabriele has operated Barks & Bubbles in the storefront for a decade. "I heard the screeching of the tires. There were loud tires coming down the street and in a flash there was impact through the front," Gabriele said. "I checked and my employees were okay and then we did a dog count. I had six dogs. Thank God we're OK. We're all just completely freaked out right now."

Priscilla Camarillo, 18, was walking home—to the second-floor apartment above Barks & Bubbles when the crash occurred. She was at the driveway for the building when "I saw the car coming really, really fast. It started spinning and I realized I shouldn't get any closer."

Camarillo and her father Sebastian have lived in the apartment for six years and didn't know where they would be spending the night.

A man leaning against the nose of a Greenwich Police car said he was the driver. Asked to describe the accident, he said, "A lot happened." He would not give his name. He was not injured.

Police Sgt. Michael Reynolds said speed was a factor in the crash and that there were about 150-feet of tire marks on the pavement leading up to the building in which the bricks and windows were blown out on impact. Charges against the driver were not determined as of 4:15 p.m.

Zack said the impact of the crash caused a vertical steel support beam to swing out and canteliver in the basement. Connecticut Natural Gas and Connecticut Light & Power crews were called to the scene to shut off utilities and firefighters packed up office equipment and supplies for Gabriele and packed them in her SUV.

Original story: Oct. 30 @ 3:11 p.m.
Greenwich Police, Fire and EMS on the scene at 60 Pemberwick Rd. where a car smashed into Barks & Bubbles Grooming.

Unknown if anyone is injured.

The car is a black Chevy Camaro.


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