Car smashes through Winnipeg Goodwill store that caught fire when a car crashed into it last year

A car smashed into a wall at the Canadian Goodwill store on Pembina Highway Monday morning, ending up partly inside the store.

A store employee who answered the phone Tuesday morning said it happened at about 4 a.m. Monday and that no employees were hurt.

The store will be inspected Tuesday, he said, and they hope to reopen on Wednesday.

The WFPS said the driver was taken to hospital in stable condition.

The store is the same thrift store that burned when an SUV crashed through its front window in March of 2019.

At the time, witness Ryan Mikolaek told CJOB that a woman was driving an SUV and had a medical emergency. She fell unconscious and clipped a red parked car and the SUV drove into the store. Shortly after, it burst into flames.

Less than a minute later, the entire storefront was ablaze. The woman was rescued from the vehicle and no one was hurt in that incident.

It was 10 months before the store reopened.

Goodwill’s interim general manager Charlotte McTavish said the 10-month closure was longer than expected, but that the support from the local community has been very encouraging.

“It’s been stressful, because it’s a loss of revenue for all that time,” she said.

Canadian Goodwill Industries is a Manitoba-only charitable organization that employs people with social, mental and physical disabilities.

-With files from Sam Thompson