`Old-school' pharmacy among buildings engulfed by overnight fire
When Nelly Jakac got a 3 a.m. phone call Thursday from her alarm company, she assumed it was just another robbery at her Cambie Street pharmacy.
But she was soon jolted awake with the news that the Pharmasave outlet she ran for the last 15 years was gutted by an early morning blaze. The 2 a.m. fire also destroyed three other businesses — the Copa Cafe, the QE Park Medical Clinic and Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea — and an empty storefront that was until COVID-19 hit occupied by Helping Hand Cleaners.
“To see this, I was speechless,” said Jakac, standing in front of the Tim Hortons at the SkyTrain station across the street from the strip between King Edward and 24th Avenue as Vancouver Fire and Rescue first responders continued to pour water through the roof of the one-storey, wood-frame buildings Thursday morning. The air was thick with the smell of smoke.
The windows of the storefront of Jakac's building and the others were smashed, and the red Pharmacare awning was on the sidewalk. There were a number of fire trucks in the block, which diverted morning rush-hour traffic.
By midday, the southbound lanes were opened to traffic, but the northbound lanes remained closed.
“The damage was catastrophic,” said spokesman Capt. Jonathan Gormick of Vancouver Fire and Rescue. “I don't think any of the (five) buildings can be salvaged.”
An investigation continues into the cause of the fire, he said.
Jakac's pharmacy “was my life, it was my second home,” said Jakac. She said her patients would share their news such as a pregnancy and births with her. “They're patients, but they're like family.”
“This is a very distinct little location” that isn't part of Cambie Village a few blocks north and it caters mostly to those in the neighbourhood, she said.
“I feel like this is a small village and I'm the general store,” she said.
One of those patients, Andrew Kolmel, waves and calls out to Jakac as he leaves, “We'll see you soon. Love you!”
“She's like an old-school pharmacist, ” said Kolmel, who said he lives closer to the Shoppers Drug Mart farther north, but chose to get his prescriptions filled at the smaller Pharmasave. “Nelly is really the heart of the neighbourhood. She's sort of like a second mom.”
Kolmel lost his family doctor and is worried about how he will find a new one.
“It's Nelly I feel for,” said Roy Toigo, who owns the building south of the fire, which his family leases out to a carpet store and Scotiabank, which weren't burned.
“She's very welcoming.”
Toigo also said he ate regularly at Copa Cafe. But he didn't worry about the loss of the buildings changing the neighbourhood because “it's a matter of time” before the block faced modernization.
Jakac said she hopes to reopen: “I will rise from the ashes, absolutely.”