Warehouse to be rebuilt
Electrical issue sparked March 3 blaze, says company
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Monday, March 13, 2017
LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
A shipping warehouse in Norman Wells destroyed by a fire March 3 will be rebuilt, according to an official with Manitoulin Transport.
The Manitoulin Transport warehouse on Junkers Avenue near the airport caught fire around noon March 3 and was "consumed" by fire, according to the Town of Norman Wells. No one was injured.
"We will rebuild ... we have to wait for the barge season to start up," said Claude Chaulk, the manager of corporate risk, safety and security for Manitoulin Transport.
He estimated it will cost about $1.5 million to rebuild.
Chaulk said there was very little cargo inside the warehouse at the time of the fire. Drums filled with fuel were outside the building.
"There was next to nothing inside that warehouse belonging to any customers other than a few skids of pop and cake flour and things like that - there wasn't really much there," he told News/North by phone.
He said Manitoulin lost several pieces of machinery and the building itself.
Heavy equipment had to be used to knock down parts of the building to help put out the fire.
The cause of the fire may never be officially determined, said NWT Fire Marshal Chucker Dewar in an interview March 6.
Despite that, Chaulk said the company believes the cause was an electrical malfunction.
The company's operations in the community continue and there won't be layoffs, Chaulk said.
Mayor Nathan Watson said he believed eight to 10 people worked at the facility.
"We will make sure everybody maintains their employment there and there is no interruption what-so-ever of services into that area. It's business as usual," he said.
Chaulk praised the response by the town and community residents.
