Central Okanagan community mourns loss of popular 40-year-old bakery to fire
Baker Fritz Priwall, who owned the Winfield Bakery for 17 years in Lake Country, B.C., before selling it five years ago, says when he first learned around 9 p.m Thursday it was on fire, he thought it must be some kind of mistake.
"I looked it up and it's really burning, so I jumped out of my bed," Priwall told Sarah Penton, the host of CBC's Radio West on Friday.
The local fire department says it received a report around 6:20 p.m. Thursday of a fire at the bakery, which had been a community fixture for more than four decades. It had closed only 20 minutes earlier.
It took about two dozen firefighters an hour to knock down the blaze, but by then the roof had already collapsed and the building was lost.
Popular business in Lake Country
The Winfield Bakery is a popular destination for locals, and many residents took to social media to mourn its loss, including the granddaughter of the man who built it.
"Not only does this place hold a ton of memories from all parts of my life — my grandfather built this bakery," Nicole Poppe-Squair wrote in a Facebook post. "It was the place Grandpa took me for bread, buns and treats every weekend and chatted with the neighbours — it was a gathering place when we were teenagers on our lunch breaks."
"I loved going to their bakery — their baked goods were the best in the area," wrote Melody O'Brien in another post.
Priwall says he sold the shop five years ago to Tammy and John Kenney, a couple from Alberta, and he has been working there as a full-time baker ever since to help them grow their business.
He says he spoke to the Kenneys early Friday morning, and they hope to rebuild the business at another location once they have sorted out insurance issues.
The Kenneys declined CBC News's request for an interview.
The Lake Country fire department says the cause of the fire is still unknown.
