'There's nothing left': Fire destroys Letellier Hotel, Oscar's Bar
The owner of a southern Manitoba hotel and watering hole spent the night parked in a Tim Hortons lot, confused and trying to process what happened after a fire destroyed his business and his home.
"Devastated ... disbelief," Gilles Barnabe said Monday, less than 24 hours after Oscar's Bar and the Letellier Hotel burned down.
Barnabe has owned and operated the Letellier, Man., business for 17 years in a building that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year.
"Everybody seems fairly depressed about it," Barnabe said.
Letellier resident Johanne Kehler called 911 Sunday when she noticed smoke and flames coming from the local haunt on 1st Street E., about 85 kilometres south of Winnipeg.
"Very sad for a small town to lose such a major place," Kehler said. "There's nothing left.
"It just took the whole building.... This morning it's just a pile of rubble."
Letellier fire Chief Jean-Guy Chartier said crews got a call at about 7 p.m. about the flames at the bar and hotel, located right across the street from the fire hall.
"By the time we got here, it was already fully involved," he said. "We determined it wasn't safe to go inside so we just attacked the fire from the outside."
Fire crews from Emerson, Altona, St. Jean Baptiste, Dominion City and Pembina, N.D., helped the Letellier squad douse the big blaze.
"It's a very sad day," Chartier said.
"I've been talking to a lot of local people who have been stopping by the fire hall, bringing food and coffee.… They celebrated 100 years this August and had a big party and everything, and now it's just going to be an empty lot. It's sad to see in little towns."
Kehler said after making the emergency call, she watched as the second floor caved in and the north side of the building "blew out."
Barnabe arrived just a few minutes after the fire crews, Kehler said.
"He just stood on the road, just shaking his head," Kehler said. "It's his livelihood. He's got nothing left. The only thing he has is the clothes on his back."
After watching firefighters spray the structure down, Barnabe drove north to Morris, Man., where he parked and slept in a Tim Hortons parking lot for a few hours, he said.
On top of running the hotel and bar, employing six workers, Barnabe also lived in the building.
"Haven't gotten that far yet," Barnabe said when he was asked where he'll live or what his workers will do to make ends meet.
It's too soon to say whether he'll rebuild, Barnabe said — that will depend on how much money he gets through insurance.
Emergency officials haven't yet released a damage estimate or information about the cause of the fire.
Letellier is about 15 kilometres north of the Canada-U.S. border in the rural municipality of Montcalm, which has a population of around 1,260 residents.
