Fire investigators are unable to determine the cause of the fire that destroyed Lang’s Cafe and damaged several surrounding business in the early morning of April 4th.
Officials said that while the fire started in the back of the building, the damage was so severe that they weren’t able to determine a cause. Arson, however, has been ruled out.
Meanwhile, those businesses are continuing to pick up the pieces, although it’s not yet clear when or if they will reopen.
Owner of Empowered Fitness, Kyle Gall, watched as fire engulfed Lang’s Cafe from his business just feet away.
Luckily fire didn’t wipe out his business, but the damage from the water destroyed almost everything.
“Our business, which is in the lower floor, had about eight inches to a foot of water throughout the whole thing,” Gall explained. “I didn’t think it would be as bad as it was — entire offices, walls had been knocked down, ceilings had collapsed. There had been 100 pound floor mats that had actually been pushed away with moving water.”
Gall took over Empowered Fitness about a year ago and said that things were really starting to pick up right before the fire happened.
“We were going into the summer season, which is really busy,” Gall said. “People are looking to get out and get moving more for the summer so they like to join a gym and then this happened, so we were a little disheartened.”
While there’s still a lot of work to be done, Gall hopes to reopen in a couple of months.
“Right now we are just waiting on a few things before they can start rebuilding things and rewiring and getting things passed and up to code,” he explained. “We’re excited now that things are getting going and we’re eager to see what things are going to be like when we rebuild.”
For Miyowisin, a neighbouring hair salon and spa, it’s a bit of a different story as the future is still uncertain.
“You could just see the smoke coming out of the door, so I just knew then that everything was going to be damaged, just from the smoke alone,” said owner Jennifer Dubois.
The damage from the smoke and water left her business in disrepair. Dubois was only open for a year before the fire happened and said her list of clients was growing, and now her staff is out of work.
“We don’t know what to do with our staff right now, so they’re on standby,” Dubois explained. “We’re dealing with insurance to even see if they’re even going to be covered for wage loss or not.”
Dubois says it could take several months before she knows if her business will reopen or move elsewhere.