Yellowknife’s Sundog Trading Post is closing for repairs after an attic fire on Friday afternoon sent fire trucks scrambling to the Latham Island café.
Co-owner Richard McIntosh said a fire broke out in the attic space above the café’s kitchen shortly after 2pm.
“We were able to see smoke well ahead of time and able to get everybody out,” he said. According to McIntosh, nobody was hurt.
“The attic will need to be replaced. I’m sure the roof will probably need to be rebuilt to some degree,” he said. “So we are going to be closed indefinitely.”
The café makes its own ice cream and sells the works of various NWT artists. While the artists’ products are safe – they’re stored at the front of the café, where no fire took place – McIntosh said the race is on to offload the ice cream, given power technicians cut the building’s electricity as a precaution.
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“I’m going to send the firefighters home with a bunch of ice cream – and a callout to the Latham Island neighbourhood association just to come get some of that ice cream,” he told reporters. (After this article was first published, McIntosh said he had reached an agreement with the nearby Wildcat Café to take the remaining ice cream and sell it from those premises – so maybe don’t rush down there expecting a freebie.)
“I mean, there’s going to be an insurance claim, so mostly I’m just worried about stuff going to waste at this point,” McIntosh said.
He described himself as “kind-of gutted” by the fire. Though most of the building remained untouched, the attic had been “fully engulfed” by the time crews arrived and quickly dealt with the fire, he said.
“Every single window and door was open, so even the smoke was almost negligible. People in the front didn’t even know there was a fire,” said McIntosh.
