A weekend fire at Hart Acre Grains, a feed and seed business in Napanee, has now been deemed suspicious.
Fire crews were called to property on Woodcock Street, just after 1 a.m. on Sunday.
“There is nothing left here,” says Shalisa Barton. “We had three separate rooms in the office.”
WATCH: Fire causes $500K in damages to home, say Napanee firefighters (Feb. 26)
Barton is the daughter of Herb and Lisa Hart, owners of the family-run business in Napanee, Ont. “We’ve had a lot of tragedies,” Barton says. “We’ve lost tractors, we’ve lost barns, we’ve lost everything.
“But this one has hit really close to home.”
The grain office next to the scales, which contained most of the business’s files and computers, was completely destroyed by the flames.
“We have lost millions of dollars’ worth of contracts,” Barton says. “It’s going to take a long time to rebuild.”
Meanwhile, the burned-out grain office has become a crime scene. The fire has now been determined as suspicious, and the case has been handed over to the Napanee OPP Crime Unit.
“It is a really scary situation,” Barton says. “Unfortunately it is a family business and we all work very closely. And this is going to take a large toll on our time — personal time, because we really do put our entire heart into these operations.”
The fire marshal was on scene Tuesday as well as the OPP, sifting through the ashes in a search for evidence and where the fire started.
“We are devastated,” says Barton.
Now the Hart family is asking for patience from their customers as they get back on their feet.
The investigation continues.