Gut ted George St. building deemed unsafe

It still wasn’t clear on Monday what caused a fire that broke out late Thursday night in a downtown commercial building on George St.

The fire burned through much of the night at 372 George St. N., near Simcoe Street, thet wo-storey building that used to house Charm Tree Toys( which closed nearly four years ago) and the Simple cosmetics store on the ground floor.

Simple plans too pena temporary downtown location soon, according to a posting to its Facebook page on Sunday, but the shop will only be able to offer three items to start because it will be difficult to replace the entire inventory quickly. No location has been set but the aim is to be running by next month.

City fire department Chief Chris Snetsinger said Monday the building was deemed unsafe, making it impossible to allow inspectors and investigators in.

Snetsinger also said it’s unclear what it might cost to repair the building, or even whether it’s salvageable.

There was a partial collapse of the roof on Thursday night, and Snetsinger said the fire was difficult to extinguish because the interior is sub divided into many small spaces.

There might be more information available Tuesday about the cause of the fire and the damage, he said.

The blaze started in the upper floor of the building: firefighters arrived on Thursday night to find flames shooting out the roof of the building.

An aerial boom was used to pump water onto the roof.

Snetsinger also said Monday the damage is at least $500,000 – but that figure could increase significantly, following an inspection of the building.

Peter borough Police said on Friday the fire wasn’ t suspicious. There were no injuries in the blaze.

Firefighters battled in defensive positions to prevent the fire from spreading into other buildings on the downtown block, including the commercial building at 376 George St. N ., where Nat as Ca fe is located on the ground floor (the ground floor also used to house the Community Butcher Shop until it closed at the start of the year).

Snetsinger said he was on the scene from shortly after 11 a.m. on Thursday until 7 a.m. on Friday as crews continued to battle the fire.