As a storm raged in Newfoundland, a community’s fish plant burned to the ground

ST. JOHN’S – Steve Ryan watched his town’s main source of employment burn to the ground on Tuesday night as a powerful storm pounded the coasts of eastern Newfoundland.

The mayor of St. Mary’s was outside the burning fish plant for most of the night as waves slammed onto the shore, drenching the local firefighters. Sometimes, it was hard to stay standing in the rushing water, he said.

The firefighters’ hoses were no match for the hurricane-force winds driving the flames.

There was nothing they could do to save the facility, which provided jobs for more than 300 people in the St. Mary’s Bay region of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula.

“I just can’t explain how much it meant to our town,” Ryan said in an interview Wednesday, his voice breaking. “My mom and dad worked there for over 30 years, they retired out of that plant. It put the food on our table and the clothes on our backs.”

The storm set in Tuesday afternoon, bringing winds exceeding 150 kilometres an hour to some areas, and surging ocean water that destroyed parts of coastal roads. The gales tore siding from people’s houses in St. Mary’s and the water damaged the town’s new park, Ryan said.

About twenty kilometres down the coast, the storm surge washed out part of the road connecting the communities in the amalgamated town of St. Vincent’s—St. Stephen’s—Peter’s River. Mayor Verna Hayward said officials with the province’s Transportation Department were moving cars through one at a time.

The storm knocked the power out, along with many people’s cell and telephone service, she said.

But the real devastation was the loss of the St. Mary’s fish plant, she said.

Rural Newfoundland has long struggled with a declining population as young people move to larger centres for jobs. But the fish plant attracted workers and their families to the region, and it gave people a reason to stay, Hayward said.

“Everything was booming, the businesses were doing good, there were spinoffs for truckers,” Hayward said in an interview. “But with the wind last night, nobody could ever save it.”

It’s not yet clear what started the fire.

The fish plant had been in St. Mary’s for more than 40 years before Tuesday’s fire destroyed it. It was among the first plants in the province to process crab, Ryan said.

It shut down roughly a decade ago, but reopened in 2022 after Ryan and the town council found a new buyer and helped them secure processing licences. It was hard work, he said. But when it finally reopened, it was like flipping a switch: suddenly, St. Mary’s Bay was bustling.

Ryan hopes the owners will rebuild, bigger and better than ever.

St. Mary’s is also home to an abandoned fish sauce factory where leaking vats of congealed capelin stand in a fetid stew of oozing fluids. The storm left the factory untouched.

“We wouldn’t be so lucky,” Ryan said, laughing.

The provincial government promised earlier this year to foot the bill to clean up the facility and Ryan said preparations are underway.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2025.