The former worker at the business, who did deliveries for 35 years, said he couldn’t believe it when he was on his way into work at Hometown Furniture on Monday morning and got tied up in the backlog of traffic.
He said due to the nature of the work he did there, he knew firsthand how much business the store did on the Port au Port Peninsula and that there were lots of deliveries all over.
“It was a sad sight watching the fire destroy that building, I’ll tell you that,” McKenzie said.
His wife, Joan, also worked at the business, for 30 years, as did a lot of people on the peninsula.
He said during conversations with others, when he brought up working at the store, everyone seemed to have had a close relative who worked there.
McKenzie said in addition to the hardware and lumber business, there were a lot of customers at the Upper Level Gift Shop, which sold a variety of merchandize.
While he’s not sure what year the store was built, he said there was a 1953 marking in the concrete corner block of the foundation, and if that’s the correct date the building was completed, it would make it 64 years old.
Being a completely wooden structure, it’s not surprising it burnt so quickly, he said.
McKenzie said he hopes the Abbotts will rebuild, but a new structure won’t be the same because of the character the old building had after being there for so long.
The history of Abbott & Haliburton dates back to 1885, which made it the oldest established firm on the West Coast of Newfoundland.
In 2010, Abbott & Haliburton celebrated its 125th anniversary, then after becoming a Home Hardware Centre in 2015, celebrated its 130th anniversary.
Larry McCann, an employee of the business who has been there since 2000, but also worked there while in high school, said the fire is devastating, especially for the 12 full-time workers. They include owner-operators Bill and Christa Abbott, who were away in Ontario at the time the fire took place.
In addition to the full-time employees, the business usually had two or three part-time employees who work seasonally.
Sgt. Blake McBride of the Bay St. George RCMP said the fire was reported to police at 5:01 a.m. and roads in the area were closed to traffic for hours while the fire was being fought. Shortly after 9 a.m. the roads were reopened.
Fire investigators were on the scene on Monday afternoon, but were waiting for the things to cool down before beginning their investigation to try to determine the cause.
Sgt. McBride said he didn’t know if insurance was carried.
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