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MERRITT HERALD THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
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Downtown buildings, apartments scorched
By Emily Wessel the herald
newsroom@merrittherald.com
The owners of three businesses are waiting for the result of the fire department’s investigation into the cause of the fire that ruined their shops and the apartments above them on Monday night. Two buildings with three businesses in the heart of downtown Merritt were affected by water and smoke from a blaze that was mostly contained to the suites on the second floor.
Nobody was hurt in the fire, but two residents of the upstairs apartments have been displaced. One of the tenants was Earthwalker Spiritual Shop owner Renee Henry. A total of 32 firefighters over nearly 12 hours worked to put out the fire in the second storey of the building that houses Earthwalker Spiritual Shop and Starz Beauty Salon in the 2000 block of Quilchena Avenue. It appears most of the fire was contained to the heritage building’s second floor, Fire Chief Dave
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Tomkinson said on Monday. The buildings are an estimated 100 years old, and the one with Starz and Earthwalker was wood construction. Though the majority of the fire appeared to be in the second floor, water damage on the ground floor is extensive, he said. Tomkinson said it’s too early to know for sure if the heritage building is a total loss. “It has no roof on it, so it’s in pretty tough shape right now. However, it is still standing,” he
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said. An investigation into the cause of the fire is pending. Wednesday afternoon, insurance adjustors were scheduled to assess the damage at the building next to the hair salon, which housed Blooming Pets. Blooming Pets owner Sue Anderson said she was waiting for the Merritt Fire Rescue Department to conclude its investigation at the building in which her store was a tenant so it could be handed over to her insurance adjustor.
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“It’s all in their hands now,” she said. “Is it fixable? Is it a tear-down? None of this I really know.” She said after a stressful two days, she is waiting to see what the assessment is before making a plan. “I can’t make any decisions because they’re not all mine to be made right now,” she said. However, Anderson said she is confident the merchandise in the store will be written off for water and smoke damage.
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