Monday, August 14, 2006

Disaster on Bell Street

I was reading the online version of the Ottawa Citizen while eating my lunch today when I came across the following item:

Fire damage put at $380,000

A fire on Bell Street early yesterday at a two-storey commercial/residential complex caused about $380,000 in damage. The Ottawa Fire Department says the fire at 188 Bell St. caused about $250,000 worth of structural damage and consumed about $130,000 worth of contents. Firefighters responded to the call at 2:37 a.m. and reported that flames were visible upon arrival. No one was in the building at the time of the blaze, which required 50 firefighters and 17 trucks to extinguish. The cause is still under investigation.

[It's got the little key symbol that means I can't read any more, but if you're a subscriber, here's the link for more.]

That must be just around the corner, I thought, 188 Bell Street, on my side of the block. Why does that address sound familiar? It's not...

I went to my blog and did a search. Opened the top posting and there it was.

I went by after work and took photos. Wedel,my source of 90% chocolate has been destroyed.

And yesterday, I thought I lived a charmed life.

3 comments:

bob said...

Looks like it was arson too: http://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/serving_ottawa/media_room/news.cfm?nr_id=3377

I never even got to check out the fine chocolate b4 someone decided i couldn't. T'is a shame.

Asteroidea Press said...

oh no! oh no! I'm not entirely surprised about it being arson. There are entirely too many fires 'round these here parts for them all to just happen.

So sad. I never got to go back to get the chocolate either. Or the punchkeys, however you spell them in Polish.

Anonymous said...

I just found out about this disaster - it was a favorite shop of mine, not least for the excellent chocolate (which I bought in quantities of 10 bars at a time), and the proprietor is a really friendly guy who makes your day when you visit! I am trying to track him down and find out what happened to him, how he is, and if he will be able to reopen his store. Hope he had good insurance.

–Doug
public at
dougsamuel.com