Seventeen people, including two famillies, have been displaced after a fire caused significant damage to three buildings on Gaston Road in Dartmouth.
Halifax Fire and Emergency tells Acadia News they got the call around 6 p.m., Monday. Once on scene they had to call for more resources.
“We had approximately 35 firefighters, ten heavy units, three light apparatus drawn from seven stations,” says Acting Deputy Chief Amos Robia.
One crew member had minor injuries.
Around 8 p.m., the Halifax Professional Fire Fighters union showed flames had burned the siding off one of the buildings, and the flames were on the roof of another.
As of Tuesday morning, the fire was out, and at least one firefighter was still on the scene, working on the destroyed parts of the building.
The roofs have partly collapsed in all three of the buildings, and the siding can be seen melting off the charred side of another building.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Meanwhile, a fan of the Namaste Indian Grocery store visited Tuesday morning.
The store is at the front of one of the buildings that was heavily damaged.
William Chappell says he lives just up the street and visits several times a week.
“The food, the fruit, the fish—everything’s good at the store. And the people are nice,” says Chappell.
He says their incense and their rice are cheap and good quality, but the samosas are a highlight because of their massive size.
“It doesn’t even cost you five dollars,” he says.
“And the thing’s huge, as big as a ball cap.”
He says while the store is gone, his wife will not like that he has to go further on his bicycle to get something, and at 61 years old, “the more time I have to do other things that I want to do, the better,” he says.
“It’s got to come back. It’s just perfect.”
