It could be months before an Enderby business recovers from a devastating blaze.
Fire roared through the second floor of Little City Fashions on Cliff View Street at about 11:30 p.m. Jan. 28.
“The upstairs is completely destroyed and I had my summer stock up there,” said owner Joan Van Dokkumburg.
“In the store, there’s lots of smoke and water damage, which is now ice. The merchandise is ruined. The smoke was toxic.”
She is insured but she is waiting for the adjustor to conclude its investigation.
“We’d like to rebuild and I hope we can,” she said, adding that renovations could be extensive.
“In the fall we could hopefully reopen. With stock you have to buy six months in advance.”
A part-time employee has been laid off, and Van Dokkumburg is focusing on another job she has.
She has owned Little City Fashions for four years.
“It’s still a bit surreal. I’m sick,” she said of the fire.
“Our life is in there. We put everything in there. We haven’t taken out wages for three years to make sure everything was OK.”