by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 29/97) - Mary Rocher doesn't give up easily.

"We're open right now if someone wants to buy, we would sell," she says of her new location, across from where the Rocher family-owned Quality Furniture was gutted in a fire earlier this week.

All of the stock inside the large Franklin Avenue store was destroyed, Tuesday morning.

Yellowknife's fire department estimated the damage at $400,000 to the building and another $400,000 to its contents.

The store's new location already bears the same name -- Quality Furniture. It was previously used as a warehouse and workers have been busy clearing out mattresses to make way for furniture.

"The phone was just hooked up (Wednesday) and we don't have a Xerox or fax machine," says Mary Rocher.

Across the street, investigators have been examining the fire damage.

"We're going 150 directions right now," says Rocher. "We're just swamped, but we have no choice in this matter."

"We may have lost four floors of stock (across the street), but we have our staff here working like mad."

Mary's son, Les, says his mother "worked all her life and had it taken all away (by the fire)."

Les Rocher co-owns the store and says he won't comment about the fire until the investigation is complete. He can't comment about the value of the loss except to say it's extensive and Rocher says the contents were not insured.

It still has to be determined if the building itself is covered by insurance.

"We're working off the warehouse and inventory," he says.