Owners of a handful of downtown London businesses are scrambling to bounce back after a $1-million fire which scarred a west-end section of Dundas Street early Saturday. Most of them expect to reopen today.
But some will be in temporary quarters because the blaze, which spewed dense smoke over the downtown are for most of the night and resisted firefighters’ efforts for nine hours, destroyed three 19th century buildings housing stores and businesses.
A cleaner’s cigarette, which accidentally ignited a volatile liquid, was responsible for starting the fire, officials said.
Burned out at the street level were the London Winery retail store, the Head Hunters hair salon and a vacant store that formerly housed Sameo Radio and Electronics. Upstairs, the Martial Arts Fitness Centre, an artist’s studio and Especially For You In Home Beauty, which was scheduled to open within weeks, were also destroyed.
The fire-ravaged businesses were in buildings at 119, 121 and 123 Dundas St., in the block between Talbot Street and Market Lane. The blocks rise four storeys high on Dundas and three storeys at the rear, facing Covent Market Place.
Carole Burgess said her Especially For You enterprise and Head Hunters will be open today in a new location at 91 Dundas in the next block west. Burgess had planned a Dec. 1 opening. “Talk about bad timing,” she said. She had decorated her shop and invested about $6,000 in beauty aids and cosmetics stored on the premises.
Head Hunters owners Barry Hancox and Gary Zimmerman could not be reached for comment.
The Martial Arts Fitness Centre has found temporary shelter at 233 Dundas, where classes will begin again tonight. Director Ken Tallack said equipment valued at $45,000 to $55,000 was lost, including a sauna, showers and weight training gear. He said he started the business five years ago on “a Chargex card and I’ve built it up from that.”
Wine lovers bent on patronizing the London Winery store will have to head east to the firm’s other retail outlet at 623 Dundas, just east of Adelaide Street. Elsie Britton, manager of the burned out store, said winery officials will tell her today about the future of the downtown outlet. “The shop is a real write-off. The shock is just hitting me today,” she said Sunday night.
Some neighbouring businesses received smoke or water damage, including the Import Bazaar, which moved into the former Cowan Pro Hardware premises at 125 Dundas about seven weeks ago. Manager Henry Alexander said smoke and water damage to the store and stock is about $25,000 to $30,000. He said he had just finished decorating for Christmas shoppers and the store will be open today.
Water flowing into the basement of Seigel’s Shoe Store at 129 Dundas caused some damage but “probably not a lot” to stock, said Jeff Seigel, adding that staff moved much of the stock when the water began coming in.
The fire was started by a cigarette at about 1 a.m. Saturday when cleaner Eugene Weatherby accidently ignited “a volatile liquid” he was using the clean the floor in the basement of the Head Hunters building, said Fire Platoon Chief Ken Smith. Weatherby escaped unharmed.
Smith said the fire’s cause appeared “cut and dried”. However, investigators are continuing to probe the site “to see exactly”
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- Water gushed from a second-storey window onto Covent Market Place outside the downtown London Winery Ltd. retail store.
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- A firefighter rides high on an extension ladder above fire trucks no Covent Market Place as a hose shoots a jet of water onto the roof of three burning buildings.
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- Weary firefighters train high-powered streams of water across Dundas Street in downtown London on Saturday in an attempt to douse a stubborn fire that caused an estimated $1 million in damage before it was stopped about nine hours after it started.
