The start of a long process

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Published on Thursday, March 5, 2015

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

The Neepawa Banner

Almost a week after the fire, Neepawa Home Hardware owner Pat Guilbert has a long road ahead of him.  On Wednesday evening, he watched the store he bought in September 2008, and expanded since then, burn. Like the tenants, he too lost irreplaceable items in the fire.

About 13 people were employed by the store and Guilbert said that making sure that they were looked after was his primary concern. The next step is to look after the store. “It’s just a process, we have to go through everything. It’s day-by-day, week-by-week,” he said, “We have to get through the first stage of the process.” One of the initial steps is to determine that value of what was destroyed by the fire.

The Office of the Fire Commissioner has pegged the damage at $3 million, but Guilbert didn’t want to give a figure until they had gone through everything.

While it’s still too early to know definitely plans for rebuilding, Neepawa Home Hardware customers can continue dealing with the company through stores in neighbouring towns.