Months after opening on Mother's Day this year, business burns down in Nanaimo market fire
A beloved landmark on Vancouver Island burned to the ground on Wednesday morning.
A fire destroyed the Cassidy Farm Market & Deli, near the Nanaimo airport, in the early hours of Oct. 4. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
Ron Gueulette, fire chief at the Cranberry Fire Department, told CHEK News that there were no injuries reported as a result of the fire.
Gueulette said the building dates back to the '30s or '40s, and described the fire as a "big loss."
It's a loss felt deeply by Sabrina Anderson and Whirly Bird, the owners of Stray Coastal Moat Market, which had operated out of the building since Mother's Day this year.
The pair opened their business after renovating the market that had been there since the late '70s. According to their website, the original business, Johnson's Farm Market, opened in 1979, and was taken over 22 years later by the Fong family.
Grant Fong and his wife were excited to pass on the market to the young couple this year.
"It's been a landmark and has a lot of history here," Fong said.
Anderson said the loss of the new business has come with emotional ups and downs.
"We're feeling pretty heavy," Anderson told All Points West guest host Rohit Joseph.
"Flip flopping between all the wonderful memories from this summer and the excitement felt leading up to opening this business … and realizing we aren't going to end it the way we thought."
An ad in a local publication was scheduled to come out Wednesday morning, advertising their end-of-season sale and some of the local wares they'd brought in to sell.
Instead, they woke up to messages saying their business's building was on fire.
When crews arrived on scene, the market was "completely engulfed" in flames, Deputy Fire Chief Garry Hein told CHEK News, adding that it took crews from all over the area about four hours to put out the blaze.
Anderson and Bird arrived at 8 a.m.
"At that point the building was completely gone."
Stray Coastal Moat Market owners Whirly Bird, left, and Sabrina Anderson say they plan to rebuild their business, which burned down in the fire. (CHEK News)
She said the market was a place where residents could gather, share stories, run into each other and catch up, and make memories over an ice cream cone.
"You can't replace those things."
Anderson is confident she and her partner will be able to recreate the business — though not necessarily in the same location — and is working to pay back artists whose works were lost in the fire.
"We'll be back. It'll be different, but we'll be back."
