Fire destroys Lac du Bonnet store
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2009 (6011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A grocery store in downtown Lac du Bonnet was destroyed by fire this morning.
RCMP said the fire was reported at about 4:20 a.m.
Fire chief Omer Lavoie said crews found a fire burning between the grocery store, Dancyt’s Foods, on 3rd Street, and the Lakeview Inn Steakhouse and Pub.
Lavoie said the fire burned its way into a room at the hotel and the grocery store.
Crews were able to extinguish the hotel fire first, Lavoie said, adding however the fire in the grocery store spread by the time they could tackle it.
"It’s totally gone," Mayor Paul Chapman said of the grocery store. Lavoie said there was water and smoke damage to the rest of the hotel and smoke damage to an adjacent home.
There were no injuries.
Hotel staff and guests had been evacuated earlier in the morning.
"I just feel so badly for our local business owners," said area resident Saija Parthenais, who rushed to the scene when he saw the smoke rising from the centre of town. "There were a few towns folks standing a the perimeter of the scene, in shock, just as I was.
"A man in his bathrobe was just watching."
Chapman said the fire is devastating to the community, adding it’s the largest commercial fire in recent memory.
The grocery store, one of three in the community, has been a family-owend business for four generations, Chapman said.
Fire and smoke could be seen from nearby Pinawa, about 15 kilometres away.
Volunteer firefighters from two nearby communities — the RM of Alexander and Pinawa — assisted the local volunteers from Lac du Bonnet.
The fire required the assistance of a privately-owned forest fire-fighting helicopter, Chapman said. The chopper made several runs to the lake, picking up water and then dropping it onto the burning store.
The cause remains under investigation.
Lavoie did not provide an estimate on the dollar value of the destroyed structure.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca