Virden blaze ‘devastating’

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This article was published 25/09/2017 (3114 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VIRDEN — Christy Gabrielle envisioned her business in a heritage building she admired when she began restoring one of Virden’s brick-veneer structures last year.

On Saturday morning, her hard work went up in smoke after a fire in an electronic store gutted three century-old storefronts — one was occupied, while Gabrielle renovated the other two.

“I think that I’m still in shock, actually,” an emotional Gabrielle said a day after firefighters spent 15 hours to extinguish the devastating blaze that gutted irreplaceable buildings in Virden’s downtown.

“I’m a single mother of four. I was trying to build something for them, in the future,” she said of her kids.

She was planning to reopen a women’s clothing store she closed four years ago in Brandon, and imagines she may never get the chance.

Gabrielle is out $150,000 to $200,000 if she does not rebuild because her insurance coverage was at a minimum because she was renovating. She had been planning to increase her coverage for weeks.

“When you don’t have the proper coverage on your property and this happens, I don’t even know how to describe that loss,” she said.

Wallace District Fire Department Chief Brad Yochim said he believes the blaze was set suspiciously, but “I can’t really say why.”

Virden Mayor Jeff McConnell was at a loss for words Saturday morning when asked to describe how this loss felt.

“Our downtown heritage buildings are some of the most important assets we have as a community, and to lose three of them in this devastating way is just …,” he said, his voice trailing off.

“I think I’m numb because otherwise I would cry.”

Nobody was injured in the blaze and people in surrounding properties escaped in time.

Gabrielle said she understood that a cat evacuated from a second-floor apartment complex that she also owned survived.

At approximately 5:45 a.m. Saturday, firefighters were called to the scene, between Nelson and Wellington streets.

Initially, they didn’t know where smoke was emanating from. Once they found the origin of the fire in the basement of the northernmost building, they threw water at it, but their strategy was “not really effective because it’s hard to reach the whole basement from that one area and it definitely wasn’t safe to send anyone down there,” Yochim said.

They could not contain the blaze at the electronics store because doors installed in two firewalls defeated the purpose of the fire-resistant barrier.

“You can’t breach a fire wall,” Yochim said. “You’re taking away the effectiveness of that fire wall, it can’t do its job.”

Yochim said the fire department visited the same building Friday night to extinguish an electrical fire involving an amplifier.

“We’re a little suspicious as to how it started the second time, because the second fire was in the basement, a totally different spot,” he said.

Yochim wouldn’t speculate on how the fire started, only that he considered it suspicious.

In the late morning on Saturday, the front of each building was knocked down, using a track hoe, so firefighters could get at the flames.

Yochim said that tactic prevented the blaze from spreading to other buildings in the block. A number of them still sustained smoke damage, he said.

The electronics store where the fire originated was an outlet of The Source.

The adjacent commercial stores, to the south, were vacant. Gabrielle said one building, which she was renovating, had two storefronts and two apartments. One of the apartments was occupied, but the tenant was out of town at the time of the blaze.

The renovated building recently received municipal heritage designation, Gabrielle said.

“This is just a significant loss and utterly devastating,” McConnell said.

“Just the other day, I was walking at this intersection and I looked at it, and I took a photo of it. I happen to think it’s one of the most attractive corners I’ve ever seen.”

Most, if not all, of the art kept at the Terry McLean Art Gallery, next door to the electronics store, was moved before the smoke prevented entry, Yochim understood.

Among the hundred people watching as fire crews doused the buildings on Saturday was Craig Russell, who once owned a pizza joint where the electronics store was.

“I’ve been removed from it for a few years, so I’m not near as emotional now, but still, it’s the memories,” he explained.

“It’s a huge loss in the heart of the community.”

» ifroese@brandonsun.com

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