Longtime Stonewall sign, graphics shop Doctor Decal destroyed by fire

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This article was published 27/05/2024 (843 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A longtime Stonewall entrepreneur is being forced to pivot after a fire decimated her business.

Doctor Decal owner Suzanne Morin said she normally doesn’t go into work on Fridays. However, she decided to pop in that morning because she’d planned to take Monday off.

Within several minutes, Morin spotted a fire in her sign making and graphics shop. She bolted, horrified because the space contained flammable isopropyl, Morin recalled Monday.

She phoned emergency services. The call came around 6:30 a.m., Stonewall Mayor Sandra Smith said.

Morin bought the Main Street business from a friend in 1997. The company’s 30th birthday looms next year.

“I just watched it go up in smoke,” she said sadly.

Crews were on scene for most of the day, although the fire department considered the blaze under control by 10:30 a.m.

Doctor Decal, at 330 Main St., has since been deemed a complete loss. The neighbouring buildings at 326 and 324 Main sustained damage.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, the Town of Stonewall said in a news release Tuesday.

Morin also didn’t have a damage estimate; she has insurance. All the machines in her three-room business and her finished projects are gone.

Toxic smoke filled the air Friday, she recalled. Nearby residents were evacuated, and fire departments from neighbouring areas arrived.

“I am very devastated,” Morin said. “It’s a big loss for me.”

Still, she’s not closing her business. She’s doing as much as she can on her laptop and is printing orders at sign companies in Winnipeg.

Morin said she hopes to find a new place for Doctor Decal in Stonewall.

“(I) want to get up and running as quickly as possible,” she remarked. “I want to see my 30 years.”

All the orders destroyed in the fire will be remade, she added.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com