Cap-Acadie smokehouse loses storage building to fire

Some residents of Petit-Cap, located in the newly amalgamated community of Cap-Acadie, N.B., were awoken by sirens early on Monday morning, as firefighters arrived to fight a blaze at the Canadian Silver Herring Smokehouse.

Jean Bourgeois lives just down the road.

“My wife got up first. We looked out the window and we saw fire trucks and police cars so we knew what it was,” he said.

The same smokehouse caught fire in the summer of 2021, when it was still operating under the name Botsford Fisheries.

“It’s distressing because it’s the same place as three years ago,” Bourgeois said.

The 2021 fire was part of a rash of suspicious fires that impacted other smokehouses in the region.

“We’ve had many fires in the community,” Bourgeois said. “It affects the community.”

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Cap-Acadie Fire Chief Ronald Cormier told Global News that Monday’s fire was not believed to be suspicious.

He said a building at the smokehouse that was used to store wood was “fully engulfed” when firefighters arrived on the scene after receiving a call around 4:15 a.m.

“So we knew that building was gone, but we managed to save two buildings beside it,” he said.

The Port Elgin and Shediac Fire Departments were onsite to assist.

Cormier said roughly 60 firefighters used 80,000 gallons of water to put out the fire, which took until 11 a.m.

No one was injured.

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Smokehouse manager Jérémie Gaudet said a small team of about a dozen employees works at that location. He said the fire won’t result in any layoffs.

“We have six other plants that they will be working at so they’re gonna be placed at other fish plants,” Gaudet said on Monday.

He said once the ruins are cleaned up and the wood is replaced, work could resume at the site.

Gaudet’s father Michel Leblanc owns the smokehouse.

He said they aren’t planning on making an insurance claim on the building. It isn’t worth contributing to rising insurance premiums on smokehouses in the area, he said.

“The multiple fires, obviously there’s been a few in the past few years. Local and even up north and other locations. So the category they fall under in insurance they keep raising the prices,” Gaudet said.

In a statement, Cap-Acadie deputy mayor Marc-André Vienneau said the municipality is “very grateful to (their) firefighters who quickly mobilized to control the fire and minimize damage as much as possible.”

The fire marshall’s investigation is still underway.