EXSHAW – An early morning building fire in Exshaw has devastated a local business owner, who lost "everything" in the blaze.
On Saturday (Nov. 30) at 10 a.m. Exshaw Fire extinguished the blaze at a building on Diamond Drive after “most of the crew” battled the destructive fire for seven hours in freezing cold temperatures.
Crews worked through the night at this stubborn fire in the industrial area.@ExshawFire pic.twitter.com/pYgRDoysGg
— Al Hogarth (@crew2capt) November 30, 2019
Fire chief Rick Lyster said no injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Exshaw building, a large workshop, was rented out by local businesses including Arctic Fox Woodworking, which owner Zachary Prokosh estimates he lost around $30,000 worth of personal property, leaving the state of the business “unclear” at the moment.
“At the present moment, [I lost] everything,” Prokosh said. “My whole life, an entire lifetime of buying tools and saving is all gone … it’s almost a total loss for me.
“At this point, I want to talk to my insurance first … once I know where I stand, there might be a silver lining and I might ask for donations or start a GoFundMe, most likely start something like that.”
Prokosh said the “flames were as high as the trees around there” at the large workshop building when he arrived on scene this morning.
In a social media statement on Saturday, Arctic Fox Woodworking posted: "In the early hours of Saturday, November 30 there it was a devastating fire and I woodworking shop out an Exshaw,Alberta. The building is a total write off and so are the contents of everything inside it. Unfortunately none of the tools inside were insured. The future is currently unclear for us. We will not be taking any new orders and if you had orders we apologize for the inconvenience. Would like to thank the men and women of Exshaw Fire department for their excellent service. We appreciate you."
The Outlook will update as more information becomes available.
