A pile of debris now stands where a historic building once stood in Ayr, Ont.
Flames ripped through the building at 22 Northumberland Street on Monday. The building, known for the ‘Hardware’ sign perched high overhead, once housed the Ayr Ice House and Creamery and was a designated heritage building. In recent years, it hosted Ayr Village Pizza, Hitched Coffee and three apartments.
But as of Tuesday afternoon, all that remained was rubble.
“Once the floors on the second storey had collapsed into the first storey, we knew at that point that the structural stability of the building was very much in question,” Garrett Cleghorn, chief building official for the Township of North Dumfries, told CTV News on Tuesday.
On Monday, a fire raged through the building. Video shows fire bursting through second storey windows as thick black smoke plumed overhead.
At one point, fire crews from North Dumfries tried to attack the fire from within the structure, but they had the retreat and continue fighting the flames from outside.
“When a building is on fire like that and you can’t get inside of it to do an investigation and the structural integrity of the building is completely gone, it is very risky to have the building continue to stand,” Cleghorn said.
North Dumfries Fire Chief Jeffrey Smith said there were working smoke alarms in all units of the building at the time of the fire.
The estimated structural damage to the building was $800,000, not including any possession inside.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
“Every crunch was soul crushing”
For the last 17 years, the Vidakovic family has ran Ayr Village Pizza from the ground floor of 22 Northumberland Street.
Iva, Lola and Vesna Vidakovic stood on the street on Tuesday as crews continued to dismantle what was left of the business they worked tirelessly to build.
“We specialize, I think, in that family community feel of a pizza place,” Lola Vidakovic said. “We make our dough in-house every day and we’re always waiting to serve the community the best we can.”
Community was the family’s passion.
“We’ve had so much support, not only over the 17 years that we’ve been here, but right now, especially, we’re really feeling it and we’re super grateful for everyone that’s shown up, for everyone that’s called us, emailed us, messaged us personally,” Vidakovic said. “We’re hearing from all over the world from our customers right now that have been here, that have left, that are all over the place.”
While the loss of the business is devastating for the family, their thoughts are also with the people who were living above their shop.
“We’re just asking for support and trying to give support where we can, especially to the people that were upstairs and lost everything. That’s our main focus right now. But the community in Ayr is incredible. Coming from a small family, we’ve gained a ginormous family here in Ayr and we couldn’t ask for better people around us,” she added.
But the feeling of devastation runs deep.
“Seventeen years of family hard work gone in about 12 hours. It hurts. We were watching [the demolition] last night and just crying. Every crunch was soul crushing, and it hurt to watch.”
At this point, the family is unsure what comes next, but they will cherish the memories they forged over the years.
“It’s our whole childhood,” Vidakovic recalled. “All of our friends’ childhoods. Everyone was here.”
“We’re the Pizza Girls. We were always known as the Pizza Girls in every household. Proudly. Proudly Pizza Girls.”