Fire razes Port au Port West business

It was the variety store with one of the best scenic views in Bay St. George - and Wayne and Lisa Penney say they will rebuild it as soon as they can.

The couple's store, Wayne's Variety, was badly damaged by fire last Tuesday evening.

Mr. Penney said he was in his office at the back of the store around 11 p.m. doing his end of the day work for the business and speaking to his wife Lisa, who was out of town, on the telephone.

After hanging up the phone he opened his office door to find the building full of smoke.

"If I had been on the phone another probably three or four minutes I probably wouldn't have got out of the business," he said of the amount of smoke he was faced with.

Upon realizing his store was on fire, he left the building and called the Port au Port East and West fire volunteer fire departments, who he said responded very quickly to the scene.

"They got the fire under control shortly but when they had to go refill their trucks, that's when the fire got more out of control again and they couldn't save the building," he said. "Their response time was fantastic and they did the best they could under the circumstances."

Along with losing the store and its contents, Mr. Penney said he and his wife lost many personal items, as the store was the couple's home away from home.

"We had a kitchen here ... we spend a lot of time here so we tried to make it as accommodating as possible," he said.

Mr. Penney said he has long days and nights ahead of him to get the business back up and running as fast as he can.

"This was my full-time self employment," he said of the business. Besides himself and his wife, the couple employs two other full time employees.

Melissa Martin, another business owner in the area and a friend of the Penneys, said the community has lost more than a store.

She said upon moving to Port au Port West from the United States, she and her husband were befriended by the Penneys, who provided them with information on how businesses are operated in the province.

"We didn't have much contact or knew how things worked here ... they were a really good support," she said.

"The one thing I noticed right away is that store was a big part of the community ... an anchor and a support."

She says the Penneys were also very supportive of the schools in the area and gave freely to local charity.

"They're always the first to respond when somebody needs something. It's a big loss not just for them, but for the community too."

reporter@thegeorgian.ca