| Burned out businesses setting up temporary offices |
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| Local Content - Local News |
| Written by production |
| Thursday, 04 March 2010 15:57 |
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Construction of a new office building near town was only three weeks from completion when much of the building went up in flames last Wednesday. Business for Butte Grain Merchants and Canada Gold Beef was disrupted temporarily last Thursday while staff set up temporary offices in a vacant former drug store on Picture Butte’s mainstreet. That’s where they’ll remain for the next six to eight months until their permanent offices are rebuilt just east of town, said Cor Van Raay, co-owner of Butte Grain Merchants. He estimated the damage and other costs arising from the fire could reach $1 million. A provincial fire investigator has yet to determine the cause of a fire and Van Raay said nothing more can be done on the clean up and rebuilding until the cause is settled. “That has to be done first.” The next step will be to work with their insurance company to determine how and when the rebuilding will begin. He said staff were able to enter the new office area last week in order to recover computers and papers in hopes of saving some of the business records. “Surprisingly quite a few were saved,” Van Raay said of the papers stored in filing cabinets. It is still to be determined if any information can be saved off of the badly burned computers. Although the papers were wet, a company that specializes in restoring the paperwork is expected to be able to save some of the records. While Van Raay said no one wants this kind of setback in their business, he was grateful no one was injured. He also praised the firefighters who worked to put out the blaze. “They sure did their very best to get it out.” RCMP were also involved in the investigation, but at this point, it doesn’t appear to be a suspicious fire, said Corp. Bryan Mucha of Picture Butte RCMP. Several employees were working in the building when the fire broke out, but they had all gotten out safely before firefighters arrived. Members of the Picture Butte and Nobleford fire departments battled the blaze for three hours before bringing it under control. They crews were initially hampered by thick, heavy smoke which required them to attack the fire very low to the ground. “The smoke developed pretty quickly I understand,” said Van Raay. Local residents lined Highway 519 and filled the south end of the sugar beet dumping grounds to watch the fire departments attack the fire. The blaze forced the relocation of both Butte Grain Merchants and Canada Gold Beef, whose office employees had both just recently moved into the newly constructed area. Construction had moved over to the renovation of the old office area prior to the fire. |
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