‘Heartbreaking’ fire destroys largest employer in small New Brunswick town
One of the owners of the largest employer in a small town west of Moncton, N.B., says the last 18 hours have been “a bit of hell,” but the local mayor is confident the family will rebuild after a fire destroyed Burgess Transportation.
Trevor Burgess says a janitor noticed smoke coming from the top of the roof of the Petitcodiac business on Smith Street near New Brunswick Highway 1 around 7 p.m. Tuesday and called 911.
Burgess said they “got a few computers and laptops out” before the fire got too big, but there’s “not a lot of salvage material out there.”
“You dedicated your whole life to this and in just 12 hours it’s all gone,” he said.
The massive fire required a major response from the Petitcodiac Fire Department as well as support from Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe.
“Over 12 departments responded, over 20 pieces of equipment responded and over 100 firefighters were on scene,” said Petitcodiac Fire Captain Brian Dunfield.
“It ranges from aerial vehicles to large tanker trucks, because in our area we need tanker truck shuttles. We don’t have water reserves or fire hydrants.”
The email you need for the day
The top news from Canada and around the world.
Receive daily national news
Get the day’s top political, business and current affairs news delivered to your inbox once a day.
Dunfield said there were no injuries and the fire department would determine the cause.
Firefighters battle the blaze at Burgess Transportation.
Courtesy of Doug Hamer
Although Burgess said the business – which repairs trucks and has its own fleet of vehicles, employing around 60 people – has received “a few offers” from other garages to set up shop temporarily, it will “be a day or two before we’re back up and running” and they are unsure how many people they will be able to keep on staff immediately.
“We’re going to pull ourselves together and see if we can get back to normal and serve our customers like we did before, but it’s going to take some time.”
Petitcodiac Mayor Peter Saunders knows the Burgess family personally and describes them as strong, determined and community-minded.
“It’s a great loss for a beautiful family business that doesn’t deserve it at all. But it happens,” he said.
Saunders said the family built the facility in 1996 and it’s been a “favorite place, with a trucking company, mechanics, truck sales and everything they do here.”
He said the company is “unquestionably the largest employer in the community now that the plant is closed.”
“They know the hard times, they know how to rebuild… they are already planning what they are going to do next.”
While describing the loss as “heartbreaking,” Burgess expressed gratitude to firefighters, RCMP and volunteers for their response.
Saunders also highlighted the broader community support, saying he was “very proud of this community.”
“When they can open a grocery store at 10 p.m. and have a Legion crew and women and men come out and make sandwiches and coffee all night for over 100 firefighters and women here? That’s a big thing in a community like this,” Saunders said.
— with files from Silas Brown of Global News
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
