Dealership devastated
Massive blaze scorches farm equipment dealership leaving millions in damages
Workers had to be evacuated as massive flames, thick smoke, and the popping of ammunition poured out from a Summerside farm equipment dealership on Locke Shore Road at the intersection with Route 2, late Saturday morning. Tina Sears, CEO of Green Diamond Equipment Ltd., said the fire broke out at the Green Diamond facility at 11 a.m. and was noticed by one of their technicians.
“He’s a volunteer firefighter and got the building empty,” explained Sears. “By the time the fire department got here the whole back shop was in flames. They thought they would be able to save the showroom and the office, but with the wind today it was not working in their favour. The building as you can see is basically a complete loss.”
It is not yet determined what sparked the fire, which has caused millions of dollars in damages, but an investigation is underway.
“We lost the whole building, the shop, vehicles, customers’ equipment, and we haven’t even started to do an inventory of everything that was here, but it’s going to be around a few million dollars,” said Sears. He added, “We are meeting with our insurance on Monday and will have a contingency plan in place to make sure that all of our customers are serviced and looked after while we rebuild.” No one was hurt, and employees will continue to work from a rented building next week. “Everybody will continue to get paid and we should be up and running in some location … by Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest. We have other facilities up in Bloomfield, so if customers need something looked after, they can call there. And we do send technicians out and can get parts to them – whatever needs to be done,” said Sears. Chief of Summerside Fire Department Jim Peters was at the scene. He said the fire spread quickly because of poor water supply and strong winds. “It had headway on it when we arrived and we just couldn’t keep up. As you can see the building is gone,” said Peters. “We were hampered by poor water supply because there are no hydrants in this area and the wind was a factor as well.”
It took fire crews three hours to extinguish the flames and gain control of the situation by 2 p.m. Water was brought in by other fire departments from New London, Kensington, and Miscouche. Local farmers also stepped up, supplying their own water to get the flames under control. East Prince RCMP Constable Ken Wakelin said they will have security in the area 24-7 until they release the scene.
“At this time the fire marshal’s office and the RCMP will be holding onto the scene for further investigation,” said Wakelin. “Right now we are removing the weapons that are here and accessible, but most of the ammunition is buried deep and hard to get out of the area.”
Wakelin added, “It looks like the fire started in the service area, but the investigation is ongoing so we can’t say too much. But it looks like it was in back of the bay area somewhere.”